POT SHOP OWNER VOWS TO FIGHT ON

The owner of a Kamloops compassion club raided by
the RCMP promises he will keep selling marijuana
to those with medical need -- part of a fight for
the "rights of the sick and dying." Carl Anderson
left the Kamloops RCMP detachment early Wednesday
in the company of his wife and nine-month-old
son. He had been arrested for obstruction Tuesday
after members of the city's drug squad executed
search warrants at his Tranquille Road
storefront. The man could have left custody the
day before, said Staff Sgt. Grant Learned, but he
refused to leave the jail cell. Around 7:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Anderson was carried out of the
detachment by officers and put on the sidewalk.

Anderson told The Daily News after he was removed
the first time, he returned to the detachment's
lobby to call 911 and register a complaint about
the treatment he experienced. He said he was
choked to unconsciousness and carried to the
sidewalk a second time. One more time he returned
to the lobby, where he took a sea! t and waited quietly.

Around 9:15 a.m., Anderson told The Daily News he
would stay "as long as it takes." He sat there
quietly, wearing the clothes he was arrested in
the day before, as his wife, holding their
infant, urged him to reconsider. Kamloops Supt.
Yves Lacasse also visited Anderson in the lobby a few minutes later.

Lacasse later said he urged Anderson to
reconsider his plans to use the RCMP detachment
as a base for his protest, informing him such an
approach would not be tolerated. "I told Carl
that he, like any other citizen, is entitled to
voice his opinion on different matters but it has
to be done outside the building," he said. "I
asked him what he was trying to achieve, and he
was not quite able to articulate that. I told him
to think about what he was trying to achieve and
develop a strategy to fight for his cause. "I
told him he was going about it in entirely the
wrong way." It's unclear whether it was his
wife's pleas or Lacasse's suggestions that
convinc! ed Anderson to leave the RCMP lobby, but
he was gone by 10 a.m! . Lacasse said he does not
believe Anderson was "choked unconscious." "He
was physically removed but I am told it was with
a minimum amount of force," Lacasse said.
Anderson maintained his claim he was physically
assaulted and harassed through his stay in the
RCMP jail cells. "They were banging on the (cell)
door every five minutes to wake me up, coming in
and poking me, laughing and having a big ha-ha. All night, nonstop.

And when they realized it was not going to work,
they got violent. "They came in as a gang and
they grabbed me. They grabbed me by the neck and
choked me unconscious, and dumped me on the
sidewalk," he said. "They are the ones acting
like criminals." Anderson's store was open for
business Wednesday although he was not present.

Those inside did not want to speak with the media.

Anderson told The Daily News he will continue his
efforts to have marijuana made easily available
to those with a medical need. He said judges in
other provinces have ruled that the! medical
marijuana program as it is being implemented now
violates citizens' constitutional rights.
"Everybody knows this is the right thing.

I can't think of anybody who thinks what I am
doing is wrong." Anderson is also a medical
marijuana user. A lawsuit filed by Anderson
following a different RCMP raid at his house more
than two years ago indicates he is allowed by
Health Canada to grow and possess marijuana
because of a medical condition he suffered after a car accident.

He is allowed by his permit to grow 49 plants for his own use.