LEAVE GRANT KRIEGER ALONE

It's High Time Our Law Enforcement Agencies Got Their Priorities Straight

On Tuesday, some United States senators noted that prior to Sept. 11, the
FBI had time to wiretap a New Orleans brothel for 13 months with 10 agents.

At the same time, of course, information about large numbers of Middle
Eastern men taking flying lessons -- without wanting to learn how to land
or takeoff -- went virtually uninvestigated. They were much too busy
investigating a victimless crime.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, many now say. How could a law enforcement agency have such
obviously wonky priorities?

Well, you need not look to the pitched battle between the FBI and the CIA
to see bad priority spending by security agencies.

Right here in Canada -- and more specifically, Calgary -- crimes that
really affect us are given the big yawn by our police departments, and
other acts that are actually providing a very worthwhile benefit and
service are prosecuted with the ferocity of a famished pit bull.

Calgary's -- if not Canada's -- foremost cannabis crusader, Grant Krieger,
was in court again recently to answer to charges of possession of marijuana
for the purposes of trafficking.

I've spent quite a bit of time with Krieger, who suffers from Multiple
Sclerosis, and watched him do his rounds, delivering marijuana to ill
Calgarians -- often at a loss and certainly never at a gain.

I have known drug dealers in the past -- with their fast cars, Rolex
watches, Persol sunglasses and gold Dunhill lighters -- and I can assure
you Grant doesn't fit the profile.

He frequently asks for the time because he doesn't have a watch, he uses a
Bic to light up his joints and he's driving around in borrowed cars because
his rusty, five-speed 1985 Honda Accord broke down.

Despite the fact that last June Krieger was found not guilty of trafficking
by an 11-woman, one-man jury and has a so-called Section 56 exemption from
the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, our supposedly cash-strapped,
underpaid, under-manned police service manages to find the time to
continually arrest and charge Krieger for possession of marijuana and
trafficking.

This, despite the fact that way back on Dec. 11, 2000, Alberta Court of
Queen's Bench Justice Darlene Acton handed down a landmark ruling in which
Krieger won the right to grow and cultivate marijuana. She placed no limits
on how much Krieger could possess or carry and no restrictions on him
providing marijuana to other sick individuals.

As she said then, there is an absurdity in the federal law that gives ill
Canadians, suffering from severe illness like cancer, MS and AIDS, the
right to possess marijuana but no legal outlet in which to buy it.

So what do the Calgary police do time and time again? They destroy his
plants and marijuana supply which is akin to taking a diabetic's insulin
and dropping it in a sewer.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine had his driver's licence and a credit card
stolen from his wallet recently. In other words, his entire wallet was not
stolen, the thief took just those two specific cards and then went to two
banks, visited a teller and withdrew some $3,000 from his credit card.

It would be pretty easy to capture this thief, who may or may not be tied
to a sophisticated credit-card fraud scheme. After all, it is known which
two branches he went to and all banks have video surveillance cameras.

What did Calgary's finest do? They phoned my friend once and said on his
answering machine: "We are closing your file because we couldn't reach you
on the phone."

So my friend called back. Then guess what they said? "Oh, that would be
great if you could get those videotapes. We'd be happy to look through it
with you at that time."

Needless to say, my friend was both outraged and aghast.

I guess the Calgary police were too busy busting Grant Krieger to protect
us from a clearly sophisticated thief.

The fact of the matter is, Krieger is saving taxpayers many hundreds of
thousands of dollars a year by helping more than 100 sick people get out of
nursing homes and off of costly pharmaceuticals.

When Krieger was confined to a wheelchair and in excruciating pain due to
his MS, he was using about $300 a month in pharmaceutical drugs, which were
being paid for by the taxpayer.

One of the people he helps now, 86-year-old Henry Adams was in a nursing
home, and on a costly cocktail of some 20 medications to help alleviate the
pain and other symptoms caused by the prostate cancer that has now spread
into his bones -- including his spine.

The nursing home cost Adams $920 per month and the province kicked in an
additional $500. His legal drugs cost at least $300 a month and yet he was
in constant pain and unable to eat.

His daughter, Eunice Cluff, pulled him out of the nursing home, started
feeding him cannabis butter in his muffins and porridge and Adams is back
walking and even wrestling with his young grandkids.

Adams and his daughter were once terribly opposed to marijuana. Now they
are not just believers but marijuana minstrels.

Like the FBI wasting their limited resources on bugging a brothel while
truly evil people were plotting the murder of thousands, Canada's police
forces do the same on a smaller scale.

I, for one, resent my tax dollars paying police and courts to prosecute
people who use marijuana as a medicine.

It's high time that our law enforcement communities got their priorities
straight and started arresting criminals and not sick people.