PROTEST OVER PLAN TO EVICT POT USER

Double-Amputee, Who Used Medical Marijuana, Died Last
Week

Friends of Marilyn Holsten held a "memorial protest" Wednesday to
remember her -- and demand the social housing she lived in has a rethink.

"I just want a change in the rules. It's the most reasonable demand
I've ever made at a rally," pot activist Marc Emery said at the
gathering of around 75 people.

Holsten -- an almost-blind, diabetic double-amputee -- was to be
evicted from her Vancouver apartment at the end of September, but died
of a heart attack last week.

The 48-year-old lived in a building operated by Anavets Senior
Citizens Housing Society. The eviction was prompted after two
neighbours complained about the smell of the medical marijuana she
used to deal with excruciating phantom-limb pain.

Emery and his wife, Jodie, had donated a $750 Volcano vaporizer to
Holsten to eliminate the smell.

They also hired a lawyer for her B.C. Residential Tenancy Branch
arbitration hearing in June, which she attended via telephone, but
lost.

Emery, who organized the rally, said he is disappointed that Anavets
would evict Holsten based on smell -- yet allows residents to smoke
cigarettes inside the building.