DOORS STILL OPEN DESPITE RAID

Medical Marijuana Dispensary Still Signing People Up After Police
Raid

Burnaby's medical marijuana dispensary is still signing up members
after being raided by the Burnaby RCMP last week.

Burnaby's first medical marijuana dispensary opened on April 15 at
4927 Kingsway.

"The doors are still open," said Dana Larsen, a director with the
Metrotown Medicinal Society, on Wednesday. "We're still doing what we
can to help people."

However, the society is unable to provide patients with medical
marijuana as part of the bail conditions set after three people were
arrested in the raid last Thursday, he said.

"We're hoping to provide medicine in the future," Larsen
added.

Larsen, a marijuana activist who was a candidate in this spring's B.C.
New Democrat leadership race, operates the Vancouver Medical Cannabis
Dispensary.

If this dispensary was located a few blocks west in Vancouver, it
likely wouldn't have been raided, he said, as it is the federal arm of
the law - the RCMP - that is behind the crackdown.

There have been three other raids by the RCMP at dispensaries in B.C.
this summer, according to Larsen.

The society is hoping the case will end up in court, as Canadian
judges have often ruled dispensaries have the right to provide medical
marijuana in cases such as these, he said.

It is also looking for support from the local business community,
Larsen said, and the society plans to go to the city with a letter of
support signed by community members.

"We hope to be vindicated," he said.

Those wanting to support the society should not be afraid, he added,
and should come to the dispensary.

Cpl. Rick Skolrood of the Burnaby RCMP told the Burnaby NOW last
Friday that the society also had a business licence violation but said
that was under the jurisdiction of the city, not the police.

Police were recommending charges of possession for the purpose of
trafficking and trafficking for one woman who was arrested Thursday,
he said, adding he didn't know the extent of the charges for the other
two people. The society invited the Burnaby RCMP to the dispensary
when it first opened, but the police initially refused.

At the time, Burnaby RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Brenda Gresiuk said that
compassion clubs and dispensaries aren't legally entitled to sell
marijuana under Canadian law.

"To date, there's no legal mechanism for that," she
said.

She refused to comment in April on whether or not action would be
taken by the RCMP against the dispensary.

Health Canada does not license such organizations to possess, produce
or distribute marijuana for medical purposes, according to a June 2010
press release, sent by media relations officer Olivia Caron in
response to an interview request.

The federal "Marihuana Medical Access Regulations" only provide three
options for individuals to obtain legal medical marijuana: access to
Health Canada's supply, obtaining a licence to produce it from Health
Canada, or obtaining a licence from Health Canada to designate someone
to grow it on the individual's behalf.

A letter or document from a physician alone does not give legal
authorization for an individual to possess marijuana, the release stressed.

The Metrotown Medicinal Society is located at 4927 Kingsway and is
open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and from 11 a.m. to
6 p.m. on weekends.