POLICE GET WARRANT TO SEARCH NEWSPAPER

Want Reporter's Notes For Story On Marijuana Grower

Staff at an Ontario weekly newspaper say an impending police search is an
attempt at intimidation because of its editorial stance on Canada's medical
marijuana law.

Stasha Connolly, owner and publisher of the Brighton Independent, was
notified last week that Ontario Provincial Police were obtaining a search
warrant to gain access to a reporter's notes and other material relating to
an illegal marijuana operation, said the newspaper's editor, Bart Kreps.

"We feel we're being hassled simply for writing about a group of people
that the police and the court system is treating unfairly," he said yesterday.

OPP Sergeant Rick Barnum, of the combined forces drug unit, said it's
"unfortunate" the newspaper views the police approach as intimidating.

The warrant, which he said will probably be executed today, was sought
because "we're obligated to do a thorough investigation."

The paper ran a story last month by reporter Tom Philp on Dianna Bruce, who
grows medical marijuana for 56 people on her property in Cramahe Township
near Colborne.

"All we're looking for is a copy of the notes from the reporter that was
there," Barnum said.

Bruce, who suffers from fibromyalgia and other health problems, was
subsequently arrested and spent nine days in the Whitby jail before being
released on bail. At the time of her arrest, she was on bail for a previous
non-drug-related offence, she said in an interview.

Kreps said the paper has no choice but to comply if police come armed with
a warrant. "We plan to let them take what materials we have, but that
doesn't include the reporter's notes because it has been our practice that
those are the property of the reporter."

Philp said he's taken his notes to his lawyer, who locked them in a vault.

"My job is not to do the police's work for them," he said, noting that
Bruce had kept police informed of what she was doing. Bruce faces three
counts each of possession, production and trafficking in the drug.

Her bail conditions prohibit her from talking about the case, she said. But
she noted she had applied for but not yet received approval as a grower
under new federal regulations that took effect Aug. 1.

Bruce provided the names of some of the people with medical exemptions
under Section 56 of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act whom she
said have designated her to grow marijuana for them.

One of them, Mark Paquette of Hawkesbury in eastern Ontario, made an
800-kilometre round trip last month to ask a court in Cobourg for the
release of 2.5 of the 18 kilograms of marijuana seized by police.

That's the amount Bruce was growing for him and represents almost a year of
relief, he said. His long trip proved futile, as the court refused to hear
his case.

Paquette, who was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1995, said he's in
desperate pain without the drug, but he and others like him remain caught
in a bureaucratic quagmire, despite the new regulations.

Individuals exempt under Section 56 are allowed to grow and possess
marijuana, a Catch-22 for those lacking the skill, health or space to
produce the plant.

The new marijuana medical access regulations allow authorized users to
designate someone to grow it for them or obtain it from the only licensed
supplier in Canada, Prairie Plants Systems in Manitoba.

Paquette said the new rules, both for users and designated growers, are "so
harsh and so absurd" that it's very difficult to gain approval.

"They're killing us, those people," he said of Health Canada.

No designated growers have yet been approved, said Health Canada
spokesperson Andrew Swift.

And there has been no production yet from Prairie Plants Systems. That's
expected in early 2002, he said. A decision has not yet been made on how
the drug will be shipped to users.

So far, only 38 people have been approved to use marijuana under the new
rules, compared to 521 users with exemptions under the old system.