CLUBS GROW LIKE WEEDS

A Toronto "marijuana club" is openly selling pot to medicinal users, as
will seven similar clubs about to sprout up across southern Ontario.

In a bold move they know will put them on a "collision course" with the law
and possible life sentences for trafficking, pot activists held a press
conference last night to announce their grand opening.

"We are not a band of back-alley drug dealers looking to make it big," said
Neev Taiero, who's involved with the Toronto club, Medical Marijuana
Resource Centre.

"MMRC exists because we believe that people are suffering unnecessarily."

The 50-member club has worked in the shadows for almost two years but will
be openly affiliated with similar non-profit clubs starting in west
Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, London, Guelph, Peterboro and Kitchener,
said operator Warren Hitzig.

Members will be restricted to those with doctors' letters confirming they
have cancer, AIDS/HIV, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis,
paraplegia/quadriplegia, epilepsy and intractable pain including arthritis.

But those with letters proving they have any other diseases alleviated by
pot intake, as well as anyone over 65, can also get the free memberships,
Hitzig said.

Each location will keep less than 30 grams of pot on hand and will deliver
orders to members, charging "much less" than the street value of $90 for
seven grams in Toronto and $50 for the same amount in London.

Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young said the clubs fill the gap between
the user and a recent Ontario court ruling -- now under appeal -- that the
government can't deny medicinal marijuana to Toronto epileptic Terry
Parker.

"(But) any way you slice or dice it this is probably an illegal activity
.. an act of civil disobedience," said Young.

The People With AIDS Foundation of Toronto approves of the clubs, saying
appetite-inducing pot can mean the difference between "normal" life and
skeletal death.

The central-east Toronto club has no permanent address, while the clubs in
west Toronto, Mississauga and Oakville will operate out of The Hidden
Jungle hemp stores.