VICS HAS SEEN ATTITUDES CHANGE DURING ITS SHORT LIFE-SPAN

It's been only four years since Philippe Lucas started the Vancouver
Island Compassion Society (VICS), and yet in that time laws and
attitudes toward the provision of medical marijuana have undergone
generations of change.

"Back then ... we didn't know if we were going to get busted as soon
as we opened the door or what," Lucas told a crowd of about
three-dozen members at the society's recent annual birthday picnic.

Since opening its doors on Oct. 1, 1999, the VICS has evolved from an
outlaw organization under constant threat of police harassment to
widely accepted purveyor of pot for people with chronic medical conditions.

While the organization technically operates outside the law, its
activities are tolerated by the police and studiously ignored by
authorities in Ottawa who are struggling to develop a coherent policy
on medical marijuana.

Last week, so-called compassion clubs across the country won a key
legal victory when the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down provisions
that limited access to marijuana for qualified users under the federal
medical Marijuana Access Regulations.

A three-judge panel removed restrictions that prevented licensed
growers from receiving compensation for their product, or growing pot
for more than one qualified patient or pooling resources with other
licensed growers.

"Basically, the courts removed the government's monopoly on providing
medical marijuana," Lucas said.

"Now we'll be able to take advantage of economies of scale and provide
high-quality product at cheaper prices."

The panel also removed the requirement for would-be medical users to
have two specialists approve their applications to use the drug legally.

"Now it's down to one specialist, which is a step in the right
direction, but we'd like to see the requirement reduced to one
(general practitioner)," he said.

When the VICS was just over a year old, Lucas openly challenged the
organization's illegality by reporting to police that thieves had
broken in to its then Oak Bay-based office and stolen much of the product.

It was a move that raised eyebrows among critics who wondered why such
an organization would tempt fate by calling in the police.

"It might have seemed like a strange idea at the time, but about 10
days later it turned out to be a positive event, because the court
case that followed recognized the good work we were doing," said
Lucas, who has since run and lost a bid to become a City of Victoria
councillor.

The evolving legal background to the issue has also reduced the
ability of police to arrest and charge pot users.

Recently police seized 10 plants from a registered medical user
belonging to the society, but returned the plants after Lucas appealed
to officials with Health Canada.

In another sign of changing attitudes, many of the participants at the
picnic carried cards allowing them to legally possess and use marijuana.

Society member Robert Wylie, a former hepatitis C patient, said the
drugs that helped cure him, including interferon, left him with
long-lasting side effects.

"Marijuana is really important for helping with the nausea," he
said.

The birthday gathering also included people with chronic pain,
multiple sclerosis and AIDS.

"Some of our members are cancer patients who are too sick and who
can't make it to an event like this," Lucas said.

Three years ago, former federal Health Minister Allan Rock granted a
legal exemption for marijuana use for medicinal purposes under the
Criminal Code of Canada.

Some members of the local club complain that, while the exemption
policy continues, new regulations have made it more difficult to get
an exemption.

In July, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered the government to start
providing medical marijuana. To date Lucas said about 12 patients have
been given government-grown pot.

In his brief address to the membership at the Oct. 5 anniversary
party, Lucas noted that the compassion society tests detected unsafe
amounts of arsenic and lead in the government-grown pot.

"We're doing our best to keep the quality up and the prices down," he
said as clouds of skunky-smelling smoke wafted over the
proceedings.

While the VICS is dedicated to selling pot for medical purposes, the
organization's focus has shifted to include a substantial research
component.

Lucas is particularly excited about a University of California study
on the effects of marijuana on Hep C patients, in which he is
participating.

As an advocate, Lucas has become more outspoken and in-demand than he
was when the VICS first opened.

In the past year, Lucas has spoken to the Canadian Senate committee on
illegal drugs, Health Canada's medical marijuana access committee and
has regularly addressed medical groups.

He recently spoke to a group of American doctors in
Colorado.

"I was actually very well received," he said of his American audience.