POT-ACTIVIST COUNCILLOR PASSING THE BONG

After 10 Years, Philippe Lucas Leaving Medical-Marijuana Supplier

Aside from the pungent odour of fresh marijuana in the air, the
Vancouver Island Compassion Society's Cormorant Street office has the
feel of any other medical clinic.

"I've been doing this for so long I don't even notice it any more,"
says Philippe Lucas, of the sweet aroma that permeates all four rooms
in the office.

Lucas is both founder and, for 10 years, executive director of the
non-profit society, which sells marijuana to those in medical need.
But Lucas, who also serves as a Victoria city councillor, no longer
has the time and is now passing the bong, as it were, to Steve
Roberts, the society's day manager for the past two years.

From the office, marijuana is sold to members in its regular bud
form -- along with rolling papers and glass pipes. But for those who
don't want to smoke, it's available in cookies and an oral spray,
both made in house.

"We're the Keebler elves of cannabis," Lucas jokes.

Clients know what they are buying because the strains are specified.
Indicas are better for those with chronic pain conditions and people
with anxiety or stress.

Sativas are more energetic, good for daytime use and appetite stimulation.

With five full-time and one part-time employee serving more than 960
registered members, the society is well established in Victoria. But
despite a national and even international profile, it operates
somewhat in the shadows -- tolerated by authorities but technically not legal.

Members must produce recommendations from their doctors to register,
though they usually don't go through the rigorous process established
through the federal government program. Plus, Health Canada has never
licensed any organization in the country to distribute medical cannabis.

Clients have been stopped by police leaving the facility, but Lucas
and his staff make a point of following up those incidents, he said.

"I think we're able to operate here because we take our work very
seriously. We have a very good relationship with the Victoria Police
Department," Lucas said.

"All of our members sign contracts saying they won't distribute the
product that they purchase here, and when we've seen violations of
that contract, we act immediately."

There are also standing rules that no marijuana is smoked on the
premises during business hours, he said.

"This isn't a place where people come in and use. If every time our
door opened there was puffs of smoke coming out, we would have more
concerns from our local police."

Victoria police are aware of the compassion society's activities, but
there are no complaints, so enforcement is not a high priority, said
spokesman Sgt. Grant Hamilton.

"We would never condone illegal activity there," he said.

"We plan our policing priorities around what's the most concern to
our taxpayers and ... a concern about the compassion club has not
been highlighted."

Over the past decade, the operation has survived two major court battles.

In 2002, Lucas pleaded guilty to possession of less than three
kilograms of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, but received
an absolute discharge.

That case stemmed from a break-in at the society's offices in which a
kilo of pot was stolen. Lucas reported the break-in to police. When
the marijuana was recovered and he claimed ownership, he was charged.

In giving Lucas an absolute discharge, Judge Robert Higinbotham said
he had become an important resource both in Canada and locally on the
issue of the medicinal use of marijuana.

"He has consulted with, and influenced, both federal cabinet
ministers and local city councillors," Higinbotham said.

In 2004, RCMP raided a society-run grow operation in East Sooke,
seizing about 960 plants. After a five-year legal battle that cost
the society about $250,000, the B.C. Supreme Court struck down Health
Canada regulations that said a licensed marijuana grower can only
supply a single client and that barred growers from pooling their
resources. The individual tending the East Sooke grow operation was
given an absolute discharge.

The irony of that raid, says Lucas, was that the grow operation,
known as the Vancouver Island Therapeutic Cannabis Research
Institute, was started after the first court case because of the
society's desire to get off the black market.

"We wanted to lower the prices to our patients and we wanted to
produce a supply that would be useful for clinical trials ... The
tragedy is that within about five hours, we lost about five years of
strain research that we'd done. We were developing strains that were
specific to certain symptoms," Lucas said.

The society now gets its supply from five or six devoted growers who
grow organically and exclusively for the society.

While many consider B.C. to have progressive views on drug use, Lucas
notes the province has more police-reported drug arrests than any
other province in Canada, and Victoria has the second-highest number
of police-reported drug arrests in all of Canada.

Lucas is himself a medical marijuana user, having contracted
hepatitis C at age 12 through a post-surgical blood transfusion. He
found out about his illness only when he was screened to work as a
child-care worker.

"I think what we've been able to do here at the Vancouver Island
Compassion Society in many ways is [to] make medical marijuana safe
for the people of Victoria. I think that they understand what we do."

But, he says, there is still work to do. Canadian laws that require
doctors to fill out a 33-page application in order to certify
patients for medical-marijuana use and thereby protect them from
prosecution are far too onerous, he said.

"My ultimate goal of medical-marijuana access would be simple.

"Let's just normalize it so that a doctor's recommendation for the
use of cannabis, which is exactly what all our members have, should
absolutely be enough to offer the legal protection to patients."