MARIJUANA CHARGES DROPPED

Founders Of 'Compassion Club' Celebrate Victory

But New Medicinal Rules Could Mean More Charges

The federal justice department has dropped drug trafficking charges against
a Toronto "compassion club," scoring a new victory for unlicensed groups
that provide seriously ill patients access to medical marijuana.

Yesterday's decision comes 17 months after the Toronto Compassion Centre
was raided by a dozen police officers in August, 2002. At the time, the
centre was providing marijuana to 1,200 patients who had doctors'
prescriptions to treat illnesses such as epilepsy, spinal cord disease and
multiple sclerosis.

Standing on the steps of Toronto's Old City Hall courthouse following the
decision, Warren Hitzig let out a holler and called it a "great victory."

Hitzig is the 27-year-old founder of the Toronto Compassion Centre who was
charged in the raid.

"This opens the gates for people who want to fight for their rights to
distribute medical marijuana," he said, surrounded by supporters.

Hitzig, along with club co-founder Zack Naftolin, had been charged with
possession and trafficking, and a preliminary hearing was set to begin
yesterday. Instead, the federal crown asked that the charges be withdrawn.

Despite the jubilation, Jim Leising, the justice department's director of
criminal prosecutions in Ontario, said the club could be charged again.

The case against Hitzig and Naftolin, he said, involved unique
circumstances in light of last October's Ontario Court of Appeal decision,
which recognized the service they were providing in the absence of any
government-licensed or sanctioned marijuana supply at the time. Since that
ruling -- which simultaneously reinstated the law making pot possession
illegal -- the government has moved to license its own growers and
suppliers, he said.

"It just wasn't in the public's interest to prosecute them," he said.

But Alan Young, a defence lawyer who helped set up the Toronto Compassion
Centre, said technically compassion clubs still exist "in legal limbo." The
fact that the crown dropped charges in this case, coupled with a recent
stay of charges involving a Montreal compassion club, "indicates the
government is not willing or able to prosecute clubs that are performing a
public service.

"I do believe these clubs will flourish and this withdrawal is perhaps some
incentive for these enterprises to continue," he said, adding the Toronto
club will continue to seek licensing from Health Canada.

Alison Myrden, a 40-year-old Burlington resident who has a federal
exemption to smoke pot to treat chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and
other ailments, said the Toronto Compassion Centre is able to supply the
right "strain" of cannabis to ease her symptoms.

"We need the government to license these compassion centres. Right now the
government doesn't give the opportunity for choice."

Naftolin, 26, who works at the Toronto Hemp Company, said he would like to
return to helping patients, but "I'm still trying to take it all in."

Hitzig said he's undergone too much stress and won't go back to supplying
medical marijuana -- "unless the government offered me an administrative job."