"HEALER, NOT DEALER" SEEKS POT LICENCE

Iqaluit's medicinal cannabis advocate Ed deVries served notice to
city council this week that he has applied for a licence to run a
business selling pot in the city.

Not just any pot, he told council during an appearance at its Tuesday
meeting, but "healthy cannabis medicine."

"I'm a healer, not a dealer," he said.

DeVries said he could provide marijuana to his many "sick" customers
illicitly - and he's already served jail-time for selling pot - but
he wants to act openly and above board, and he appealed to council to
help him do it.

"I believe we have a constitutional right to use cannabis as a
medicine," he told council.

He extolled weed as a cure-all, including for conditions like
epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and for pain control for end-stage
cancer and AIDS.

DeVries described himself as a reformed alcoholic, who switched from
booze to pot 17 years ago, and has never looked back.

He took more Nunavut votes than the Green Party candidate in the 2004
federal election when he ran on the Marijuana Party ticket.

Although mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik told council they would have to
decide on the matter of the licence when it came back before them,
they had no questions for deVries.