LAWYER FOR ALLEGED 'COMPASSION CLUB' MARIJUANA RING TRASHES RCMP

The lawyer for a number of alleged 'compassion club' marijuana
dealers says the RCMP has made a false claim against the alleged
ringleader and police are essentially wasting the public's time by
spending 18 months investigating sales of marijuana.

On Wednesday the North Vancouver RCMP announced at least 41 charges
against a large group of "dial-a-dopers" allegedly selling marijuana
through the front of a medical marijuana compassion club.

In what seems to be a legally murky area of enforcement, compassion
clubs sell marijuana to users permitted to buy the drug through
Health Canada applications that are backed up by physicians' prescriptions.

A group calling itself The Compassion Association, allegedly headed
by 39-year-old Jason Thon of Vancouver, was busted after police got
an anonymous tip in September 2007.

Search warrants were executed on Thon's home and storage locker,
turning up about six kilograms of marijuana, according to police.

In an interview Friday, Kirk Tousaw of Conroy & Company, representing
Thon, Kevin Moriarty, Debra McDonald-Myers and Katherine Wedemire,
said police got the facts wrong.

"(For police to say) the storage locker was in Mr. Thon's name, I
don't understand that to be the case," Tousaw said. "I'd caution
people not to pre-judge the case on the RCMP's factual assertions."

When asked directly if he is asserting The Compassion Association is
a legitimate medical marijuana seller, Tousaw said "I expect to raise
defences (based on) the Charter (of Rights) and common law, involving
the use of marijuana for medical and therapeutic purposes through a
compassion society."

Tousaw also argued that from his standpoint Canadian society does not
value the RCMP spending over a year going after alleged marijuana dealers.

"Eighteen months of investigation for marijuana (sales) is not what
we want our police to do, even if all the allegations (in this
specific case) are true," Tousaw said.

Tousaw also said he was surprised that the North Vancouver RCMP
conducted a press conference on the drug seizure and charges this
Wednesday, instead of waiting for the case to proceed in court. He
said he would guess the RCMP's media blitz was a public relations move.

"There is a tremendous amount of pressure in our society now for the
police to be seen as doing something about crime."

Cpl. Marlene Morton of the RCMP said according to the North Vancouver
force's drug unit, the storage locker in question was in fact
registered in the name of another group member, but Thon was the
ultimate owner.

"The locker was rented out to another person in the group, but it was
rented to the group as a whole," Morton said. "The position of the
drug unit is (Thon) is the leader of this band."

Morton rejected that the investigation into the group was somehow
frivolous, and reiterated the RCMP has a clear mandate.

"The RCMP's stance is there isn't a legitimate compassion club until
there's an act of parliament (allowing them)," Morton said. "If
people need medical marijuana they can go to Health Canada."

Morton said the amount of business The Compassion Association was
allegedly doing does not fit the profile of a medical marijuana provider.

"Apparently Thon had thousands of customers," Morton said. "I'm not
sure there are thousands of people in the Lower Mainland that qualify
(for medical marijuana.)

Morton said the RCMP want to clarify that the North Vancouver drug
unit did not spend a whole 18 months investigating The Compassion
Association, but pursued the file intermittently over that amount of time.

"This was a big case for our drug unit (but) it was not a whole 18
months spent on it."

According to the Health Canada website, under the marijuana Medical
Access Regulations of 2001, Health Canada can grant access to
marijuana by applicants suffering from grave or debilitating
illnesses if a physician signs a medical declaration indicating the
nature of the symptom for which marijuana would be used.

Applicants that are authorized can obtain marijuana from Health
Canada's supply, they can grow their own supply, or they can
designate someone else to grow it for them.

A B.C. marijuana activist website provides insight into the movement
to provide the drug through "compassion clubs."

The British Columbia Compassion Club Society, founded in 1997, says
it is "a natural health care centre and an activist organization that
is also operating 'outside' the legal structure ... (as such) our
work is cut out for us," the group is quoted saying, on the website
of Cannabis Culture magazine.

Cannabis Culture was founded in 1994 by pot legalization activist Marc Emery.

The magazine's website provides a primer for starting a compassion
club and outlines strategies to win public approval for the clubs,
with tips and legal advice.

"At its simplest, a compassion club can be started with an ounce of
medicine, a pager, a backpack, and a skateboard. With excellent
foresight, this basic setup can evolve into a storefront cannabis
clinic," the website says.

"I recommend AGAINST going to the police and telling them your plans
. Typically, an investigation is launched when operators go to the
police "to let them know what's going on," the website says.

The compassion club article on Cannabis Culture's website outlines
the crux of a legal argument that may be central to the legal defense
of The Compassion Association.

The argument is essentially that marijuana Medical Access Regulations
do not provide adequate supply for authorized users and effectively
force them to go to the black market.

Citing the 2003 civil case called Hitzig vs. Canada (brought by
Toronto Compassion Centre founder Warren Saul Hitzig and a group of
medical marijuana users) the Cannabis Culture website says "As the
record makes clear, there are a number of people who already have a
source of marijuana and wish to engage in compassionate supply of it
to those in medical need .. It is argued that Compassion Clubs
effectively serve as "unlicensed suppliers" for Authorized-To-Possess holders."

In the case, Ontario Superior Court judge Sidney Lederman ruled
marijuana Medical Access Regulations violated the rights of the
applicants as set out by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Health Canada responded to the ruling, announcing they would start to
distribute marijuana to authorized medical users in 2003.

The Cannabis Culture website also offers advice on winning positive
media coverage.

"Positive media coverage is a challenge ... Before consenting to an
interview, spoon-feed the journalist with information that you've
collected. Don't expect a reporter to read pertinent info about
medicinal marijuana unless you direct them to fantastic resource material."

Finally, the website offers an exhortation to fight the good fight
for medical marijuana.

"Anticipate a struggle, even with the best-laid plans ... Given the
erratic enforcement of cannabis laws, working within your own comfort
zone based on perceived community tolerance is essential. Support for
medicinal marijuana thanks to tireless activism is overwhelmingly
high in the United States and Canada. Silent majorities are waiting
to be tapped."