MARIJUANA 'PHARMACIST' WINS PRAISE FOR HIS WORK

Judge In Philippe Lucas's Drug-Bust Case Lauds His Business Conduct And
Altruism

VICTORIA - Philippe Lucas called the police after he discovered a break-in
at the storefront office of his non-profit society. An officer surveyed a
hole in the wall, opened his notepad and asked what was missing.

"About 23 pot cookies and about maybe $1,200 worth of cannabis," Mr. Lucas
said.

The officer looked around, Mr. Lucas recalled, before asking, "What exactly
is it that you guys do here?"

The storefront was home to the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, a pot
pharmacy that sells marijuana to clients who have referrals from their doctors.

Police caught the thief within days. Mr. Lucas identified the marijuana as
belonging to his group.

He wound up in handcuffs, facing trafficking charges with a maximum penalty
of five years less a day. Afterward, he felt like a dope.

"It may have been naive in hindsight to go in and identify the cannabis,"
Mr. Lucas said recently. "But I really thought of it as the society's
medicine."

He pleaded guilty. On Friday, after 20 months of nervous anticipation, Mr.
Lucas walked out of B.C. Provincial Court with an absolute discharge and
words of praise from the judge.

People seeking the decriminalization of marijuana for recreational and,
especially, medicinal use were watching the case closely.

In granting an absolute discharge, Judge Robert Higinbotham noted that Mr.
Lucas's group registered under the Society Act, got a business licence,
kept meticulous records of finances and inventory, and took steps to ensure
that the marijuana was not redistributed by members.

The judge also noted that the storefront operated openly and with tacit
knowledge of the police, yet its location was not widely known. The society
did not advertise its presence.

Judge Higinbotham praised Mr. Lucas for being motivated not by greed, but
by good.

"His conduct did ameliorate the suffering of others," the judge said. "By
this court's analysis, Mr. Lucas enhanced other people's lives at minimal
or no risk to society, although he did it outside any legal framework.

"He provided that which the government was unable to provide: a safe and
high-quality supply of marijuana to those needing it for medicinal
purposes. He did this openly, and with reasonable safeguards."

Mr. Lucas, 32, celebrated his discharge by popping a bottle of 1983 Chateau
Lafitte Rothschild, a present from his mother on his 21st birthday. While
his friends and family drank heartily, Mr. Lucas could enjoy only a taste.
He has hepatitis C, contracted from a blood transfusion during surgery at
the age of 12.

His condition was not diagnosed until 1995, during a routine blood test to
apply for a child-care job.

Shortly after the diagnosis, he began to suffer from nausea and general
malaise, symptoms he found were eased by marijuana.

He helped launch the society with some of the $15,000 he was awarded for
being infected by tainted blood. Over the years, federal, provincial and
municipal politicians have consulted him on the medical use of marijuana.

Mr. Lucas, a teacher and writer, is proving to be a formidable advocate.
"He is articulate, intelligent and fluently bilingual in both official
languages," Judge Higinbotham said.

Chief Constable Bent (Ben) Andersen, whose Oak Bay police arrested Mr.
Lucas, calls him a gentleman and "proper in every sense. Other than the
fact he was breaking the law."

Mr. Lucas, a self-described political junkie, is preparing to seek a seat
on Victoria City Council this fall. He would like to run as a Green
candidate -- the party holds one of nine council seats and polled well in
the city in the last provincial election. It will be his first try for
elected office, although his family is not unfamiliar with campaigning.

Mr. Lucas was born in Montreal in 1969 to a real-estate agent and a
Progressive Conservative loyalist, who divorced when he was 2.

He and younger brother Marc were raised by their mother, Pierrette Lucas,
who ran unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate in a 1977 by-election in
the Montreal-area riding of Verdun.

Mrs. Lucas became press secretary to prime minister Joe Clark two years
later. She was later appointed consul-general in Philadelphia and Boston,
where Philippe completed high school while living in a Georgian-style brick
mansion with tennis courts. Mrs. Lucas, described in newspaper stories as
elegant and "a vivacious Montreal divorcee," made occasional appearances in
the society columns after her return to Canada as chief of protocol in the
External Affairs Department in Ottawa.

Mr. Lucas attended five universities, graduating with a degree in English
literature, and has a secondary-teaching certificate.

The blemish on his record was a conviction for drunk driving in Ottawa in
1991. He was fined $450 and lost his licence for a year for what he now
calls "a dumb mistake on a dumb night."

He opened an office in a storefront in 1999 in Oak Bay, a well-to-do
municipality bordering Victoria. The storefront had been operating for 14
months when the break-in occurred in November, 2000.

A few days later, Mr. Lucas was sitting at a desk in the storefront writing
a letter to the police chief when the police raided the office.

"They asked me if there was any cannabis on site and I told them where it
was," he recalled. "They cuffed me. They read me my rights. They asked for
the combination for my safe at home, as I'd very stupidly told Oak Bay
Police Chief Constable Andersen that that's where we normally keep the
cannabis for safekeeping."

When the police were unable to open the safe, Mr. Lucas was brought in
handcuffs to his apartment. Police seized six grams of marijuana at the
storefront and about 450 grams in the safe. They also took $1,200.

Judge Higinbotham has ordered the police to return the cash, a computer and
any unused paraphernalia. The marijuana and used paraphernalia were forfeited.

The judge also called on either Parliament or the Supreme Court of Canada
to resolve quickly the "thorny issue" of medical use of marijuana.

For his part, Chief Constable Andersen disputes the judge's contention that
the police gave approval, tacit or otherwise, to the society's operation.
He said his department was seeking information to get a warrant to search
the office.

The society, which has about 250 members, according to Mr. Lucas, has a new
location in a storefront on the edge of downtown Victoria. No signs declare
its purpose. Members, who need a doctor's reference to join, sign a
contract promising not to redistribute their supply of marijuana.

The interior decor is serene, with upholstered furniture and a massage
table. Pot cookies, hemp oils and rolling papers are available. New-age
music plays. As at a wine bar, a menu offers a selection of marijuana
varieties, with descriptions of their flavour and details on which symptoms
(pain, malaise, nausea) it is said to ease.

It has potted plants, but no pot plants.

Among the clients is a frail man blind with glaucoma who, Mr. Lucas said,
was beaten while trying to buy marijuana on the street. Now, he comes to
the society's storefront instead of taking his chances at the dangerous
outdoor drug bazaar a few blocks away near city hall.