EX-GROWER FEARS FOR LIFE

A Chilliwack man with a licence to grow medical marijuana says he's
never going to grow it again, after he was tortured and almost killed
in a violent home invasion early Wednesday.

Brian Carlisle told The Progress he was bound with his own bedsheet,
beaten with a rod, pepper-sprayed and hit with a stun gun repeatedly,
after at least five people broke into his residence looking for a
mature marijuana garden garden that didn't exist.

"They were so well-organized and had walkie-talkies. They tortured me
and enjoyed it," he says. "They were posing as police as they came
through the window, but when I heard the sound of the tape ripping, I
knew it wasn't cops."

Mr. Carlisle would not disclose his location, but says he's suffering
from lacerations, bruises and several broken bones in his face. "I'm
just relieved my children were not harmed," he says. His wife,
Shannon, was tied with tape and suffered bruises from punches when she
wouldn't obey demands for silence.

"While tied up in the sheet, I was hit with a long metal rod. I
managed to turn over on my back and they started with the Taser. They
held the Taser on me until the batteries ran out or I was
unconscious," he says.

He begged his assailants not to tape his mouth, saying as an asthmatic
with a deviated septum, he would suffocate.

"One of them said, 'Good, then it will be quicker,'" he says. "But the
worst thing to deal with was the pepper spray. They sprayed me from
head to toe and it was like I was on fire."

Mr. Carlisle says all he ever wanted to do was secure a safe supply of
medical marijuana for sick Canadians in his years of medical pot
advocacy, but the risk of "grow rips" and the associated violence are
ones he says he's no longer willing to bear.

"I never wanted to grow marijuana, or be a farmer, all I ever wanted
to do was law," says Mr. Carlisle, who has spent the past two years
working as a law clerk in two different firms. "I worry that everyone
who grows pot will have this happen to them. People like me are being
dealt a death sentence every day that (federal health minister Ujjal)
Dosanjh doesn't do something to secure safe medical marijuana."

He says there's just no way to ensure the safety of one's family and
so he's making the decision not to grow again.

"Police are seeking the public's assistance to identify the
assailants," says RCMP media liaison Cpl. Sean Sullivan.

Forensic identification investigators were on scene the night of the
crime to gather evidence, but no arrests have been made yet, nor have
any suspects been identified.

The home invasion on Storey Avenue was called in at just past 1:30
a.m. on Sept. 1.

Mr. Carlisle says after he regained consciousness, he managed to get
his hands free and then slip over his fence into the next door
neighbour's yard to try to get help for his family.

He was bleeding from his face and eye and couldn't see, and says
neighbours were too afraid to open their doors to him in the middle of
the night. At least one neighbour heard him scream that it was a home
invasion and to call 911.

"If someone breaks into your house and takes control of you, it all
happens in milliseconds," says Cpl. Sullivan "You can only imagine
what it is like to be overpowered and held against your will."

He says it's more of a phenomenon elsewhere in the Lower Mainland. The
officer says it's tough to track down evidence in home invasions,
which are "a fairly rare occurrence" in Chilliwack.

"We rarely see it out here. There's no specific offence attached to
this crime other than break, enter and theft, with assault, and it can
be with or without bodily harm," says Cpl. Sullivan.

Mr. Carlisle says he collapsed in the street, which is where police
found him when they showed up about half an hour after they were called.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call RCMP at
604-792-4611 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.