COPS JUST DON'T GET IT, SAYS MEDICAL-POT USER

Cheryl Eburne has a message for the senior RCMP officer who thinks
marijuana shouldn't be available to those who have debilitating illnesses.

"I just feel these people should walk a mile in my boots before they
comment," said Eburne, 50, a housewife who says smoking pot daily
helps her deal with her severe arthritis and fibromyalgia.

"They just don't understand people are chronically ill. We're doing it
to help our health, not to get high."

Eburne, a mother of two teens, says she tried everything to help her
deal with the pain that began about six years ago.

Because she has a condition that makes her sensitive to many types of
medication, she says she was left with few options.

Then she tried smoking marijuana last summer -- and since then, Eburne
says she has been able to eat and sleep and leave the house on a daily
basis.

She now gets her marijuana from the Compassion Club, an operation on
Commercial Drive in Vancouver that distributes "clean" high-grade
organic pot at discount prices to people who have a doctor's note
saying they are suffering from an illness.

RCMP Insp. Richard Barszczewski said last week that the Mounties don't
want to see marijuana distributed through operations like the
Compassion Club.

"The RCMP agrees there is an unquestioned need to express compassion
for sufferers of debilitating illnesses, and to explore every option
to provide them with relief from their pain," Barszczewski said.

"But there is absolutely no medical evidence to support the suggestion
marijuana has medicinal value," he added.

"Quite the contrary, there is a comprehensive body of evidence [that]
indicates marijuana is a potentially harmful substance [that] invites
drug dependence."

Since it moved to the Commercial Drive location about seven months
ago, the Compassion Club has not been bothered by Vancouver police,
said founder Hilary Black.

About 700 people are members.

Black said many suffer from AIDS, cancer, arthritis, glaucoma, nausea,
and migraines.

The provincial government has given the club charitable status and the
club's lawyer is in negotiations with city hall regarding an occupancy
permit.

But Barszczewski, who heads the force's drug-awareness program in
B.C., says the club is breaking the law and feels something should be
done about it.

"The circumstances under which marijuana is provided to consumers at
smoking clubs fits the definition of trafficking," he insisted.