POT GOES TO COURT, AGAIN

Compassion Club Set For Their Fifth Trial Date

Ginette Gagnon, who turns 48 next week, says she was dying until six
months ago, until she found the Compassion Club, Quebec's first
supplier of medical marijuana. Suffering from Addison's disease,
diabetes and hepatitis C, Gagnon says the pot helps her eat and sleep
regularly. "Before I used to vomit for 24 to 48 hours, out the top
and out the bottom," says the welfare recipient, crying in the Club's
small office at 950 Rachel E. Problem is, Gagnon can no longer afford
her pot, which, unlike her other prescription drugs, is not
reimbursed by Medicare. Her only hope is that the Compassion Club
wins a bizarre legal case that could decriminalize medical pot across
Canada. Decriminalization, it is hoped, could lead to the drug
becoming accepted by Medicare. Postponed four times, the case goes
back to court April 23.

"Money is the real problem for the majority of patients," says Club
co-founder Caroline Doyer. She says the club can't sell the pot for
any less than $10 a gram, since it pays its undisclosed dealers $8
per gram. The $2 slice gets reinvested in the club, which is run by
volunteers. "Because we buy such high quality pot, we don't mind
paying $8 a gram. Regular pot growers sell for $4 to $6 a gram, but
that's not necessarily the type of pot we want.

"Besides," Doyer adds. "It's illegal. And people take all the
precautions they can." The Compassion Club has been openly flaunting
the law by providing high quality herb to sick people with doctors'
notes since 1999. On February 10, 2000, Montreal police busted the
club. They arrested two volunteers--Marc-Boris St-Maurice, 32, head
of the federal Marijuana Party, and 22-year-old Alexandre Neron, who
works as a helper for disabled university students--and seized $55 in
cash, 66 grams of pot, equipment and patients' files. Prosecutors are
charging the duo with drug trafficking and possession for the purpose
of trafficking. The club was closed for a month, Doyer says. Patients
were left to buy their pot on the street.

The trial was originally scheduled for October 2001. The judge bumped
it to December, and then bumped it twice more, without much in the
way of explanation. In the meantime, Doyer says the club is under
constant surveillance. She says her phones are tapped at the office
and at home. And she says police occasionally park empty cars in
front of the office, sometimes with lights flashing. "They're still
building a case against us," Doyer says. "We're still treated like
criminals. We think it's ridiculous we even have to go to court with
all the experience we have, and all the experience of clubs across
the country. The B.C. Compassion Club has been open since 1997!"

The current pot law allows only select people access to medical
marijuana. For example, a person who is going to die within 12 months
is considered Type 1 priority, according to Health Canada's Office of
Cannabis Medical Access (OCMA) Web site. But even terminal patients
have to apply for a license to grow it themselves, or to have someone
else grow it for them.

For more information on the case, call the Compassion Club at
521-8764 or www.clubcompassion.org.