POLICE WON'T RETURN WOMAN'S LEGAL POT

To err in seizing it was human, police say to give back, a
crime

Waterloo Region police have confiscated marijuana sent to a seriously
ill Kitchener woman, who is one of 34 Canadians authorized to use the
drug to soothe their pain.

The police force, which was unaware of the woman's Health Canada
exemption when officers seized the drug, says it won't charge her but
would be trafficking if it returned the marijuana.

Catherine Devries, who has an excruciatingly painful back condition
caused by a degenerative nerve disorder, says she was in her bathroom
throwing up yesterday morning when two officers showed up at her door.

"Talk about the heart pounding," Devries said later.

"I thought maybe someone I know had had an accident."

Instead, the officers told her they had confiscated 21 grams of
marijuana mailed to her from Vancouver.

Devries, who has suffered from the condition for 20 years, realized at
once they were not aware of the Health Canada exemption that protects
her from prosecution for marijuana use - a fact confirmed by Staff
Sergeant Gary Askin of the Waterloo drug squad.

Hours after the officers left, taking the exemption certificate with
them, Devries was "still shaky" and upset, because she had hoped to
use the marijuana to alleviate her pain.

Devries was taken by friends to a hospital emergency room
yesterday.

Although Ottawa set up the exemption system last year, it hasn't
created a legal source of marijuana.

The marijuana intended for Devries was mailed to her by Hilary Black
of the British Columbia Compassion Club Society in Vancouver, which
Black says is "tolerated by the Vancouver police."

Black said her organization is providing marijuana to Devries free
"because the federal government is not doing it.

"An exemption is just a piece of paper," she added.

"It can't be smoked to take the pain away."

Askin said police are caught in a Catch-22.

"We are in a position where the federal government has arranged this
(system) but provided no vehicle for us to give her the drugs," Askin
said.

"Our hearts are out to her, but we cannot legally give her the
package, because to give it would be trafficking."