CANNABIS COMPASSION CLUB SURFACES

Signs of leniency from the federal government regarding the use of
marijuana for medical purposes has brought a Heritage City group out
from the underground.

The Nelson Cannabis Compassion Club started two years ago with help
from Holy Smoke Culture partner Dustin Sunflower Cantwell. With the
federal government currently looking into the use of the illegal drug
for helping certain ailments, the club has decided to go public and
are holding a potluck and information night on Monday.

"When we opened up the culture shop, people with medical necessity
came to the store and asked about cannabis for medicinal purposes
because we were in the cannabis light and we knew about it," Cantwell
told the Daily News. "More and more people started coming in, from
elderly people to people with all kinds of ailments, so we had to set
something up for being able to give people medical cannabis."

Next week federal Health Minister Allan Rock is expected to announce
details of clinical trials on the medical use of marijuana which has
already been approved in Ottawa. In the past year there has also been
two private member bills brought before the House of Commons - one by
the Bloq Quebecois, and one by the Reform Party - to decriminalize
marijuana which would mean fines for small amounts instead of criminal
records.

Currently the B.C. Compassion Club Society operates out of Vancouver
and has 700 members using pot for pain according to Cantwell. Locally,
he says there are about six people who he has provided marijuana for
ailments such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain.

"People who are sick, I provide cannabis for them," Cantwell said. "If
I felt I was doing something wrong I would not say that
[publically]."

Cantwell said the purpose of the Monday meeting is to provide
information and "brainstorm" about better ways to operate the club.

''We need to get a separate entity from Holy Smoke because it confuses
the issue of recreational and medicinal, it gets mixed up," Cantwell
said. "We're not trying to ride the legalization thing on the back of
medical cannabis users, it should be run by the people who are using
this for medical purposes."

Modeling the Nelson club after the B.C. Compassion Club in Vancouver,
what Cantwell would like to see is a house set up for people to use
the cannabis in a comfortable setting which would provide a
clinical-type system for distributing the drug.

Even though the federal government is showing signs of loosening-up
the marijuana laws, Nelson City Police said currently the law states
that all use is illegal.

"If Mr. Cantwell says that he is supplying people with cannabis,
whether he is selling it or giving it away, under the controlled drugs
and substances act that makes him a drug trafficker," said Sgt. Dan
Maluta. "Accordingly so, he can be charged with trafficking and if he
wants to run that risk it's up to him."

Just as concerning, Maluta said, by distributing a "pain reliever"
Cantwell is overstepping his bounds.

"Mr. Cantwell is not a doctor therefore I think he's taking a great
risk administering these substances to people," Maluta said.

The club does ask for a medical history and asks members to sign
release forms and provide some sort of documentation to prove their
illness. Cantwell said he's not pretending to be a doctor and adds
that's not the point..

"I have no medical training whatsoever, but it's not up to me, it's up
the people who are sick," he said. "If they come in and tell me that
cannabis relieves pain that's their self-diagnosis. A person who is
dying does not need a diagnosis from a doctor to say 'yes he's feeling
better.' They feel it within themselves."

Cantwell said he is not overly concerned about what sort of action the
police might decided to take.

"I can't say what the cops are going to do, but at the same time this
has to be done" he said.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at below the Nelson Library on Stanley
Street.