SEEKING CANNABIS COMPASSION

Fifteen people, a tiny downtown apartment and a man sick from AIDS
with anywhere from one to five years to live.

This is the heart of the Kelowna Compassion Club-the latest medical
marijuana operation to grace B.C.'s map.

It's a spin-off of highly successful efforts in Vancouver, Victoria
and Nelson to provide safe, accessible cannabis to patients with
otherwise debilitating conditions.

To say it's a fledgling operation is a bit of an understatement.

"It's been a slow grow," said founder Richard Babcock.

This spring Babcock established a registered society for cannabis
distribution with five undisclosed board members for partners. He's
since lost one person-and is actively looking to replace him to
maintain his society status.

While he's rounding third on his first year in business, he has
managed to gather just 15 members.

Despite rock bottom prices and guaranteed 100 per cent organic
product-a crucial factor for those with chronic conditions affecting
their immune system-Babcock struggles to help people in desperate need
like himself, people he knows need the illegal substance to stimulate
appetite, cope with pain and stomach the lengthy lists of prescription
drugs it takes to prologue an HIV, hepatitis C or multiple sclerosis
patient's life span.

Admittedly, the lackluster face of the one-man operation may have put
off a few potential members.

"People might get the wrong impression when they call," said Babcock,
a self-described one-time "coconut" who spent 10 years doing crack
cocaine and living on the street.

Despite efforts to curb his mouth, he has trouble making it through a
sentence without swearing and frustrates easily.

"I don't have time for bullshit," he explained. "I've got
AIDS."

Despite a federally sanctioned program for patients to use the illegal
drug, Babcock's frustration aptly describes the entire medical
marijuana scene in Canada, according to prominent activists.

Phillippe Lucas of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society points to
reports this month that revealed the federal government is using
collection agents to chase down sick and dying patients who have
failed to pay for purchases of marijuana they said was of very poor
quality.

The first batch of federally grown marijuana was widely reported to be
low in THC, the active medicating ingredient, was ground too fine and
included useless plant parts in the mix.

"I'm a major critic of the federal program," said Lucas. "I think it's
under-served our sickest citizens."

Lucas contends locally-based compassion club's like Babcock's are the
top route for sick people to get their hand on marijuana.

Of the 1,200 people with federal exemptions to use medical marijuana,
roughly half go to a compassion club to get their dope. Across Canada,
10,000 people are serviced by the operations, which still remain illegal.

In Vancouver, the 10-year-old B.C. Compassion Club Society operates a
medical marijuana program and wellness centre at the grace of the
Vancouver Police Department and their neighbours.

Like their counterparts in Victoria, the club rounded up roughly 100
members in its first year, but has grown to 3,500 members and has
published an operations guide for other clubs to follow in getting
started.

"We've now got more people than we have the capacity for," said Nicole
Marcia, communications spokesperson. "It takes about six to eight
weeks to get in unless the person is in the end stages of a terminal
illness."

Lucas is aware of several upstart clubs which have tried to offer the
service, but knows many do not survive. A club in Coombs,
mid-Vancouver Island, for example is now defunct as is a small
operation in Port Renfrew.

It's an incredible challenge to find buyers willing to grow in
sanitary circumstances, then sell for rock bottom prices, he said.
Unlike the Vancouver club who report little to no problems, Lucas has
chronicled six years worth of arrests and court appearances on his web
site and said it took five years to recoup his investment in the business.

"It's like my wife says: having a compassion club, you're the only
person in Canada selling pot and not making money.'"

"I totally support people who have the courage to follow up on their
convictions and support the hundreds of thousands who depend on
medical marijuana for their quality of life," he said.

The Okanagan Compassion Club is actively seeking funding, members and
a board member. For more information, visit their web site
at: http://www.okcompassionclub.com.