NANAIMO COPS CUT OFF POWER OF MEDICINAL MARIJUANA-GROWER

Cedar's David Hodgkinson is afraid he'll be spending Christmas in the
dark after the RCMP swooped in on his home Friday, dismantled his
medicinal pot operation and cut off his power.

Hodgkinson has been growing medicinal marijuana in his house for about
a year under a licence to cultivate the controversial herb from Health
Canada.

Hodgkinson was licensed to grow up to 49 pot plants, but his licence
expired in August, despite the fact that he applied for its renewal
eight weeks before its expiry date, as stipulated by Health Canada.

A friend who also has a licence to grow up to 49 medicinal pot plants
was sharing space and equipment with Hodgkinson at his home, but his
licence also expired in August and he was facing the same bureaucratic
hurdles from Health Canada when the police showed up to dismantle the
operation and charge both of them with illegal cultivation.

A spokeswoman from Health Canada said the department is not allowed to
share third-party information on any its medicinal pot licensees, but
acknowledged that there's been a "sharp rise" of applications over the
past year to grow medicinal marijuana that has "slowed the process
down."

Nanaimo RCMP wouldn't release details of the raid on Hodgkinson's home
on Monday. One local advocate for medicinal marijuana said "it's
shame" that law-abiding citizens who try to be legal are being
punished for their efforts.

"The thing is, the police had been to my house a number of times to
check on the operation since my licence expired, knew my circumstances
and never did a thing until now," Hodgkinson said.

"They didn't even bother unplugging anything, but just cut all of the
wires and hoses, had the power disconnected and now the only power I
have is from a friend's generator. I don't know what to do next, other
than try and get my power back on and get on with life."

The official from Health Canada, who asked not to be identified, said
the agency has posted a notice on its website explaining that there is
a backlog of new applications and renewals of old ones which is
causing delays and Health Canada is "working hard to improve its
efficiencies."

However, she said a licence to grow medicinal pot has an expiry date
that still applies despite the bureaucratic backlog, so people like
Hodgkinson are technically growing pot illegally until the licence is
renewed.

Richard Payne, a medicinal pot advocate who once ran as a candidate
for the B.C. Marijuana Party, said it seems the authorities would
rather that people who require medicinal pot buy from organized
criminals rather than people like Hodgkinson who are trying to fill a
health need legally.

"I think its outrageous that people who are doing their best to help
are being punished for it," Payne said. "We've been fighting this
ongoing battle for a very long time."

Hodgkinson said the police knew that he was waiting for his licence
renewal to come through, but they wouldn't respond to his questions
while they were at his house Friday.

"I've also told Health Canada that they've put me in a bad situation
and asked what I should do, but they wouldn't give me any advice," he
said. "Christmas is beginning to look pretty bleak right now."