COPS 'HARASS' PWA & SEIZE HIS POT

Although Jim Wakeford is legally entitled to smoke pot, Peel police seized
a shipment of weed at Pearson International Airport.

And then they wouldn1t give it back.

"This is harassment," says Wakeford, who has AIDS and was given permission
by the federal health department to use pot as a medicine. It controls
nausea and allows him to eat.

But the shipment was stopped on May 11. It was one of two sent to Wakeford.

Wakeford is ill and can't grow his own; he was offered pot by the
Compassion Club in Vancouver, an organization dedicated to providing its
members with clean cannabis.

"The first shipment arrived safely, the second one was confiscated by the
police. I was informed of this by a phone call at 7:30am."

"No money changed hands," he adds, of the Compassion Club's help. "They
were generous enough to give some."

Police refused to return the package, even after discovering that Wakeford
is allowed to have it.

Peel police had no comment and referred calls to the RCMP; officers there
knew nothing.

Says Wakeford: "My lawyers had to go to court to get it. The judge ordered
the police to return the marijuana."

Justice Kathy Hawke made the decision on Jun 26, a month and a half after
it was seized.

Wakeford asserts that his most recent problems would be alleviated if the
federal government would give him a safe supply of pot. He even went to
court to fight for this right.

But in April, another judge refused Wakeford's demand that the federal
government be forced to provide him with marijuana.

That judge "ruled that I could get pot as easy as anything. That judge was
terribly mistaken in his assessment. I lost that round, it was a very tough
blow. I'm in a bizarre situation, it1s a right without a remedy."

For Wakeford, access to medicinal pot is not the only problem. From someone
in Health Canada leaking to the media the names of those who've received
waivers for pot smoking, to having to leave his Church St home for three
months because of exposure to mold, Wakeford1s had his share of difficulties.

"I've had horrendous problems."

Perhaps the most trying was going to court again to get back the $5,000
stolen by his former lawyer, Jorden Kolman.

"I was in the hospital in March 1998 and nearly died. When I came out, it
took a long time to find out that my money wasn1t there. After months and
months I got almost all of it back from the law society. It was money my
friends had donated."

The cash had been donated to help Wakeford's high legal costs. He hopes to
raise another $15,000 to launch an appeal to fight for a government supply
of pot.

"I'm really down right now. I'm licking my wounds, and I'm sick and tired.
Hopefully that1ll all pass and I'll be spunky again."

Wakeford fought in court for years and won what1s called a Section 56
exemption in 1999, which gives him the "legal right to use marijuana and
grow it."