MEDICAL POT CLUB AWAITS SUPPORT

A pot-smoking London mom says she still plans to open a marijuana buyers'
club in London for medicinal users of the narcotic, but wants to line up
more public support first.

Lynn Harichy said Monday the proposed outlet should open within a few weeks,
but she wants to make sure its members won't be arrested.

Harichy said she wrote to every MP in Canada last year looking for support
and recently fired off e-mail messages to London Mayor Dianne Haskett and to
all other members of city council.

Some MPs wrote back in support, Harichy said, notably from the Bloc
Quebecois, but she hasn't heard from city council members.

"I just want to make sure these patients, when they come in -- I don't want
them to get busted."

Harichy got no such assurance from Haskett on Monday.

Haskett said the operation of the club would violate the Criminal Code, a
matter she'll discuss this week with police Chief Julian Fantino. "It's a
narcotic with a lot of deleterious health effects and I'd be surprised if it
were supported by the legal system," she said.

RELIEVE SUFFERING

Harichy, 36, who has multiple sclerosis, said she smokes up to five
marijuana joints a day to subdue her pain. She believes others in pain
should also be able to get marijuana cheaply and hassle-free to relieve
their suffering.

The Toronto-based Medical Marijuana Resource Centre announced plans last
month to open a "marijuana club" there, affiliated with similar non-profit
clubs to open in London and other southern Ontario centres.

Club members would be allowed to buy marijuana in small amounts. Members
would be restricted to those with doctors' letters confirming they have
serious or terminal diseases including AIDS or HIV, cancer, muscular
dystrophy or multiple sclerosis.

Harichy said the likely location for the London club would be the same
building as the Organic Traveller, a downtown hemp shop on Richmond Street.

Marijuana possession and trafficking are against the law, but an Ontario
court recently ruled the government couldn't deny medicinal marijuana to a
Toronto epileptic. The case is under appeal.

Harichy, a mother of two, faces a pot possession charge with a scheduled
April 27 court date.

With files from Free Press reporter Jonathan Sher

Copyright (c) 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media
Corporation.