RCMP SEIZE MEDICAL POT USER'S PLANTS

An Evansburg man who takes pot for his pain fears he's about to get
sicker after police seized his weed yesterday.

Steve Chorney, 39, has been on painkillers for years, but over time
they've started to damage his liver.

As an alternative, he started smoking pot under Health Canada's
medical-marijuana program, but yesterday's police raid at his farm
means he'll have to go back on his other pain medication.

"If I don't get off these pills, I'm going to die," he said.

The RCMP, meanwhile, says Chorney was growing the plants illegally.

"According to Health Canada, there is no licence in place for this
individual," said Cpl. James House of the Evansburg RCMP.

Chorney, though, said he was in the midst of getting his licence
renewed in order to move his plants outdoors.

After applying to Health Canada in late winter, he was asked last
month for another form.

He admits the licence had expired but said he had advice from Health
Canada officials to keep growing the pot in the meantime and to call
them if he had problems with police.

"I tried showing the paperwork (to police), and they threatened to
arrest me," said Chorney.

House said he has sympathy for Chorney, who has suffered leg pain for
years from complications following a misdiagnosis for multiple
sclerosis. But, he added, "you have to follow the rules."

Chorney suspects the raid was part of what he calls a crackdown by
police on the medical-marijuana program.

Kirk Tousaw, a Vancouver lawyer who acts for medical-marijuana users,
said he knows of cases in which police have waited for pot licences
to expire in order to launch raids.

Tousaw added users are increasingly in limbo as the process to renew
licences gets more complicated.