POT CRUSADER STARTS CLUB IN CALGARY

A Calgary club that will provide seriously ill patients a safe and
reliable supply of marijuana to alleviate their suffering will be
operating by mid-June, said a pot crusader.

Grant Krieger, convicted last December of marijuana trafficking, said
he stopped visiting his probation officer in March because he
questions the legitimacy of any law that denies him access to a drug
to help him cope with multiple sclerosis (MS).

A Regina judge gave the 44-year-old Calgarian an 18-month suspended
sentence in January and ordered him to report regularly to a probation
officer.

Krieger, who could be hauled back to court on a breach of probation
charge, said he is lying low while he lines up sources of supply for
his club, Universal Compassion Club. He said he will become a supplier
as well.

``I was nothing more than a political prisoner,'' Krieger said.
``Society doesn't have the right to tell me how to heal my body or
what I may or may not use in the process. I just called (a Calgary
probation officer) up and told her I was finished playing that game.''

But Det. Pat Tetley of the Calgary Police Service drug unit cautioned
there is no room for philosophical argument where the law is
concerned, and police will prosecute users and suppliers.

``Marijuana is illegal,'' said Tetley, the unit's drug expert. ``As
long as the drug remains illegal, we'll enforce the laws that apply to
it. That's the way it is.''

Krieger said his club has 25 members who suffer from diseases such as
MS, fibromyalgia, cancer, glaucoma and AIDS.

Most of their supply comes from Calgary growers, he added.

Fibromyalgia sufferer Mara Czayka, 37, who lives on an acreage in the
Turner Valley area, recalled how the quality of her life improved
dramatically after a fateful meeting with Krieger last March in his
home.

Czayka, who suffered from unremitting pain, extreme fatigue, tremors
and memory loss and often was bedridden. was at wit's end. Her doctors
could do little. A friend suggested she see Krieger. He handed Czayka
a pipe and she took a couple of puffs.

"Suddenly my shaking stopped," she said. "It was great. I was in
rough shape. I was shaking. I remember sitting on the couch and Grant
offered me the cannabis. I remember thinking half an hour later, "I'm
carrying a conversation."

Czayka, who appears vital and healthy, said she is living a more
normal life. She takes about four or five puffs as often as 10 to 15
times a day.

During a Herald interview, Czayka suddenly displayed shortness of
breath and tremors. Thirty seconds later, she asked the reporter if
he would mind if she lit up.

Czayka pulled a joint from a "medicine" can. After about five quick
puffs and two minutes, she was back to normal. "This stuff is
beautiful," she said. "It is the champagne of (pot).

"I'll do whatever it takes to help push (compassion clubs) through,"
she said. "When Grant came into my life, it was a blessing."

Brenda Fischer, 37 of Calgary, who suffers from Ehler-Danlos syndrome
- a rare, incurable, genetic connective-tissue disorder - said she,
too will do whatever she can to make Krieger's club a success.

About 1 1/2 years ago, Fischer's physician wrote a
"To-whom-it-may-concern" letter that said only long-term narcotics
would ease her pain. "She finds that marijuana helps her pain and her
insomnia and I have agreed with this, as I have no other therapies to
offer her," the doctor wrote.

A Health Department memo obtained last month by Southam News suggest
Canadian drug and tobacco strategies could be undermined if marijuana
were allowed for medical use while the government is trying to stamp
out smoking and illegal drug use.

Nonetheless, Health Minister Allan Rock said in March that Ottawa will
start clinical trials of medical marijuana.

Krieger said an 800-member club is flourishing in Vancouver. But
London, Ont. police recently forced the closure of a club by arresting
and prosecuting its suppliers, he said.

Krieger's conviction was his second on a marijuana-related offence. A
Calgary judge gave him a $550 fine in October 1998, after he lit a
joint in front of the Court of Queen's Bench and told onlookers he
planned to give some to another man with MS. He said he is living
apart from his wife and three children to shield them from police.

Krieger said he intends to organize a nationwide network of clubs. For
now, though, he's focusing on the Calgary club, and he's making his
network large enough so that if police catch any supplier, it will
affect only a small part of the organization.