MONTREAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA STORE SOWS DISCORD

Upset Merchants Say 'Compassion Centre' Attracting Healthy-Looking,
Young Buyers

(CNS) A newly opened "compassion centre" in Montreal that purports to
sell medical marijuana to the ill is sowing discord among residents
and merchants who say it's attracting hordes of healthy-looking young buyers.

"No one going into that place is in need of compassion," said the
owner of one business around the corner from the Culture 420
Compassion Centre in the borough of Lachine. "They're running in and
running out all the time.

"I wouldn't mind if it was legal, but it's so obvious it's not. I
mean, really, you have to go upstairs to get in -- there isn't even
wheelchair access."

Merchants complain buyers are loitering in front of their stores,
deterring customers and taking up parking spaces in a sector of the
borough that's already economically depressed.

Using or growing marijuana for certain medical conditions has been
legal under federal law since 2001, but selling it isn't. Compassion
club operators, however, say going the legal route through Health
Canada to buy marijuana is difficult and can take years, forcing many
to suffer needlessly.

"We have something called a duty to provide for people's needs (for
therapeutic cannabis), and sometimes they're life-sustaining needs,"
Culture 420 co-founder Pavlos Papadakis said Wednesday.

Open nearly three months, the centre already has 1,000 members. About
200 people come through a day, Papadakis said.

"It got busy really fast," said one store owner, who, like all the
merchants interviewed asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
"At least they took the prices out of the window."

To be eligible to buy, applicants must submit a form signed by a
doctor attesting they have a condition or symptoms treatable with
cannabis, such as pain from AIDS, epilepsy or arthritis. The centre
calls the doctor to verify, Papadakis said.

Business owners and residents have started at least two petitions
calling for the centre's ouster.

Some worry the centre, connected to a pastry shop and near a daycare,
could be the target of a firebombing by dealers who don't appreciate
competition. Culture 420 sells more than a dozen varieties of
marijuana -- either grown on site or purchased from growers -- for
street-market prices of about $10 a gram.

Culture 420 is one of two so-called compassion clubs in Montreal
operating in a legal grey zone. The other is the Compassion Club of
Montreal which has been open since 1999 and also has about 1,000 members.

In 2002, a Quebec Court judge acquitted president Marc-Boris
St-Maurice of drug trafficking while he volunteered at the Compassion
Club, which St-Maurice said meant he could continue to provide the
drug to suffering patients.

"Compassion clubs are illegal," Stephane Shank of Health Canada said
in an e-mail. "The only organization that can legally supply
marijuana seeds and dried marijuana is the government of Canada."

Police will turn a blind eye to establishments seen to be providing a
legitimate service. But not all.

A club in Toronto was raided last week after complaints of alleged
drug offences. Police seized 16,000 grams of marijuana, 1,940 grams
of hash and 207 grams of hash oil, and charged the owner and eight volunteers.