HOLY SMOKE CENTRE TARGETED AGAIN

A shot fired at the Holy Smoke marijuana compassion club on New Year's Day
has Brian Carlisle asking for more police protection.

But police investigators say it was not a bullet but a rock or some other
projectile that struck the glass door of the club located on Yale Road near
the new courthouse.

RCMP Const. David Aucoin agrees the property has been the target of a
number of acts of "vandalism" recently, but Mr. Carlisle, president of the
non-profit society that runs the club for medical marijuana users, calls
the incidents "hate crimes" upon the centre that opened in July. A chunk of
concrete was thrown through the glass window around that time.

Mr. Carlisle believes competing marijuana growers may be to blame.

"The bad guys are saying 'beat it ... we like the black market,'" he says.
"Regardless of how sick we are they don't want any change to their status quo."

Marijuana is not sold or grown on the club premises, and members are
required to obtain the equipment and expertise to grow their own, Mr.
Carlisle says.

"We're not in the business to sell pot, that's not why we opened," he says.
"We're in the business of bringing about awareness." "My goal is not to
give them milk, it's to give them the cow to make their own milk," he adds.

Mr. Carlisle says 27 of the 60 members of the club have obtained licences
from Health Canada to grow their own pot. All members are required to
obtain a physician's approval to use marijuana for medical reasons before
they can join the club.

An Abbotsford company has donated grow lights, fans, and nutrients to
distribute free to club members in return for participation in a research
study on the different strains of marijuana.

While Mr. Carlisle says he does not sell marijuana, he has "donated" some
pot given to him by local growers to club members who have not yet started
growing their own.

He believes recent court rulings protect compassion clubs that provide
marijuana to patients for medical purposes.