RCMP ARREST PRO-POT PUFFER

Seize Cash, Grass

A Calgary-based medicinal pot crusader faces possession charges after
being busted by Headingley Mounties on Tuesday. Grant Krieger, 49,
said he was pulled over Tuesday night by RCMP, who seized roughly
$7,500 worth of marijuana and cash from his vehicle. Krieger, an MS
sufferer who has smoked marijuana for medicinal purposes since 1994,
said the pot was for himself and a Selkirk resident stricken with cancer.

Both are legally allowed to grow weed and smoke it for medicinal
purposes, Krieger said yesterday.

"What the police and the government are doing is ridiculous," said
Krieger. "They don't have a clue about what they're doing -- they
don't realize that there are sick people they're not helping who need
this. It's discriminatory."

Krieger is head of the Krieger Foundation, a group devoted to
supplying the narcotic to those who need it for medical use. The
group, which counts Winnipeg as one of nine communities in which it
operates, supplies pot to people with serious medical ailments who are
not necessarily legally entitled to smoke it, he said.

FOUR OR FIVE GRAMS

Krieger said all but a few grams of pot were seized by
Mounties.

"These officers, in their infinite wisdom, decided I needed no more
than four or five grams and left it in my car," said Krieger, who
smokes 14 grams of weed daily.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Steve Saunders would not confirm Krieger's arrest.
He did say, though, that officers found an undisclosed quantity of
marijuana and cash after pulling a vehicle over on the Trans-Canada
Highway near Headingley early Tuesday evening.

The man, who Saunders wouldn't name, was released and will be formally
charged when he makes his first appearance in court on March 19.

Krieger is no stranger to police. He was convicted by a Calgary judge
just last month of trafficking pot after testifying he distributed
home-grown marijuana in 1999 to members of his Compassion Club.

Two jurors asked to be relieved of their responsibilities rather than
convict Krieger, who freely admitted his guilt. Krieger was handed a
one-day sentence, which he appealed earlier this month.