MARIJUANA EXEMPTEE FREED AFTER NINE DAYS IN JAIL

Dianne Bruce was freed by a Cobourg court Monday afternoon, but not
before spending nine days in an overcrowded Whitby jail.

The Cramahe Township mother of two teenage girls was arrested October
19 when officers from Northumberland OPP, and members of the Combined
Forces Drug Squad, raided her residence near Dundonald. Her
18-year-old daughter Michelle Hughey was also taken into custody and
released later the same day.

For the next ten days Bruce was housed in a women's holding facility
in Whitby. During her stay in a lockup containing only four cells and
eight beds, there was never less than 12 inmates being held, she said.

"At one point I counted 16 girls in here," Bruce said in a telephone
interview from the jail last Saturday. "I slept on the floor beside
the toilet for six nights, and they wouldn't give me my
medication."

Bruce told the court she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1991, a
condition that causes painful muscle spasms throughout her body. She
also has three herniated discs, and severe problems with her digestive
system. Unable to find relief with conventional medication, Bruce
applied for a federal exemption to smoke marijuana for medical
purposes, she said.

Although her doctor prescribed medication for her pain and digestive
problems, correctional authorities would only give her "a tranquilizer
crushed up into powder," Bruce said.

Correctional Services spokesperson Julia Noonan said overcrowding at
provincial jails happens periodically, even though the ministry
attempts to "move inmates to other facilities to lessen the problem."
She could not speak about Bruce specifically, but said authorities
provide health services for inmates with medical problems.

According to OPP spokesmen, Bruce, and her partner Jerry Kresoja, were
being investigated for growing marijuana illegally at the Cramahe
property. Kresoja was not at the residence when it was searched, and
police have issued a warrant for his arrest.

A personal computer, growing equipment, a crossbow, and an estimated
40 pounds of marijuana were seized during the raid, a police press
release stated.

Bruce was profiled in the October 10 edition of The Independent, in a
feature story about the medical use of marijuana. The article outlined
Bruce's efforts to grow marijuana for more than 40 people across
Canada who had federal exemptions to possess, and/or grow the herb.

Most of those exemptees had applied to Health Canada to allow Bruce's
company, Lady Dyz Helping Hands, to produce marijuana for their
consumption under the regulations of Section 56 of Canada's Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act.

Sgt. Barnum said police were not disputing the fact that Bruce and
Kresoja were growing marijuana for medical exemptees, but nobody at
the Dundonald home had legal authority to grow marijuana, he said.

But Bruce questions the timing of the raid that resulted in "medicine
for sick and dying people" being seized.

"(Police) knew what we were doing," Bruce said during a Saturday
telephone interview from the Whitby jail. "Why did they wait until
harvest time, when all the exemptees were expecting their medicine?"

Bruce said members of the Kawartha Drug Squad, including Constable
John Murphy, had visited the operation regularly throughout the summer
months. Police told her they were only ensuring that the medical
marijuana crop had security measures in place to comply with Section
56 regulations, she said.

Bruce said she asked Northumberland OPP Sgt. Bill O'Shea to sit on
Lady Dyz board of directors as early as June 29, a day after Maclean's
magazine interviewed her for an article on exemptee Jim Wakeford.
O'Shea was "fully aware" at that time of what was being grown at her
house, she said.

In a telephone interview earlier this month, O'Shea confirmed Bruce
had asked him to sit on her board, but he had declined "for obvious
reasons."

"I told her it would be a definite conflict of interest for me,"
O'Shea said.

Bruce said local "recreational smokers" of marijuana began raiding the
garden by night in early September. After trespassers were found on
the property September 13 and 18, and again October 11, police were
called on each occasion, she said.

"My lawyer says this is a case of sour grapes because the police were
made to look bad," Bruce said.

Karen Marshall, a Belleville woman who owns half of the Bruce
property, and who offered that half as surety for her friend, was
challenged during the bail hearing by Federal Crown Prosecutor Doug
Mann. Marshall knew marijuana was being grown on her land, and did
nothing about it, Mann said.

Bruce's lawyer David McCaskill rebutted Mann's argument, telling the
court that Marshall was not the only person who knew what was growing
in the garden.

"Sure Ms. Marshall knew marijuana was growing there," McCaskill said.
"But so did the police, they're the ones who are supposed to know the
rules."

The conditions of release include Bruce residing with Marshall, having
no contact with Kresoja, not continuing with the business known as
Lady Dyz Helping Hands, and not having anything to do with the
production of marijuana for any purpose.

Reached at her home on Tuesday, Bruce said she was "glad to be in my
own bed and feeling a little better."

"I couldn't stop shaking for almost ten days, throwing up, having
diarrhea," Bruce said. "But once I got some proper medication, the
shakes were gone within thirty seconds."