KITCHENER WOMAN PLANS POT PROTEST

KITCHENER (Torstar)-- A Kitchener woman allowed to smoke marijuana for
health reasons will be in Toronto today to protest against federal
government and police actions that deny legal users medicinal pot.

Catherine Devries, 44, who suffers spine and bowel conditions, is one of
nine Canadians represented by Toronto lawyers who have launched a civil
lawsuit against the government in an effort to get access to high-quality pot.

The lawsuit, to be heard Sept. 19 and 20, will demand in Ontario's Superior
Court of Justice that Devries and about 200 other Canadians who have legal
exemptions to smoke pot be given access to experimental marijuana crops
grown by Health Canada in an abandoned mine in Flin Flon, Man.

Devries, who will take part in the protest outside the offices of the
federal Justice Ministry, said she's "devastated and stunned" by two
developments in the ongoing struggle to find a safe supply of cannabis by
those given government permission to smoke dope.

The first involves comments made in Saint John, N.B., this week by federal
Health Minister Anne McLellan who said she's uncomfortable about endorsing
marijuana for medical use and wants to see further research done.

McLellan said at the Canadian Medical Association meeting she sees
contradictions between Ottawa's fight against tobacco use and its decision
last year to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The second is actions by heavily armed police who last week raided the
Toronto Compassion Centre, which sold medicinal marijuana to Devries and
other medicinal smokers.

The centre was shut down after police charged organizers with possession of
marijuana, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of the
proceeds of crime.

Devries said yesterday McLellan's comments are another sign Ottawa is
prepared to delay any action to provide medicinal marijuana.

Devries said the Toronto Compassion Centre was one of the few safe places
medicinal users could get marijuana. Now it's closed, she and others will
now, once again, have to risk buying pot from street dealers.

Last year, former health minister Allan Rock approved limited use of pot
and gave doctors power to prescribe cannabis. But doctors resisted in part
because they don't know proper dosages and were warned by insurers not to
sign medical declarations for those seeking medicinal marijuana.

Devries said yesterday Rock and his government are only interested in
creating the appearance they want to be compassionate and change laws to
help sick Canadians get access to cannabis.

The new regulations were the government's response to a court ruling that
Canada's pot laws are unconstitutional because they recognize marijuana has
medicinal uses but do nothing to provide a legal supply route.