BREATH HELD IN MARIJUANA BID

Rev. Brian Carlisle is no dope.

He believes 160 kilograms of marijuana that Mission RCMP seized last
October is rightfully his, and he’s working the courts to get it back.
Carlisle, an ordained minister with Universal Life Church, is the
founder of Holy Smoke Alternative Healing Center, an organization that
provides medical marijuana to its members.

"We use it for medical and spiritual purposes, to heal each other and
heal ourselves and do what it says in every single religion and
culture on the planet - "do what is right and hurt no one," Carlisle
said.

He was in a New Westminster court yesterday with a group of supporters
prepared to argue why the seized bud - or $ 1.05 million in
compensation for it - should come his way.

Carlisle says he is one of some 20 Canadians with a de facto exemption
from Health Canada to grow and consume marijuana for medicinal
purposes. He lives with glaucoma and chronic pain. But the hearing was
bumped to June 12.

"There is such urgency," said Carlisle, who fears the bud could be no
good by then. "There are people dying for this medicine, right now,
dying for it."