Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jul 2000
Source: Xtra! (CN ON)
Copyright: 2000 Pink Triangle Press
Contact:  http://www.xtra.ca/site/toronto2/html/city.shtm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2152
Author: Rebecca Saxon

COPS 'HARASS' PWA & SEIZE HIS POT

Although Jim Wakeford is legally entitled to smoke pot, Peel police seized 
a shipment of weed at Pearson International Airport.

And then they wouldn1t give it back.

"This is harassment," says Wakeford, who has AIDS and was given permission 
by the federal health department to use pot as a medicine. It controls 
nausea and allows him to eat.

But the shipment was stopped on May 11. It was one of two sent to Wakeford.

Wakeford is ill and can't grow his own; he was offered pot by the 
Compassion Club in Vancouver, an organization dedicated to providing its 
members with clean cannabis.

"The first shipment arrived safely, the second one was confiscated by the 
police. I was informed of this by a phone call at 7:30am."

"No money changed hands," he adds, of the Compassion Club's help. "They 
were generous enough to give some."

Police refused to return the package, even after discovering that Wakeford 
is allowed to have it.

Peel police had no comment and referred calls to the RCMP; officers there 
knew nothing.

Says Wakeford: "My lawyers had to go to court to get it. The judge ordered 
the police to return the marijuana."

Justice Kathy Hawke made the decision on Jun 26, a month and a half after 
it was seized.

Wakeford asserts that his most recent problems would be alleviated if the 
federal government would give him a safe supply of pot. He even went to 
court to fight for this right.

But in April, another judge refused Wakeford's demand that the federal 
government be forced to provide him with marijuana.

That judge "ruled that I could get pot as easy as anything. That judge was 
terribly mistaken in his assessment. I lost that round, it was a very tough 
blow. I'm in a bizarre situation, it1s a right without a remedy."

For Wakeford, access to medicinal pot is not the only problem. From someone 
in Health Canada leaking to the media the names of those who've received 
waivers for pot smoking, to having to leave his Church St home for three 
months because of exposure to mold, Wakeford1s had his share of difficulties.

"I've had horrendous problems."

Perhaps the most trying was going to court again to get back the $5,000 
stolen by his former lawyer, Jorden Kolman.

"I was in the hospital in March 1998 and nearly died. When I came out, it 
took a long time to find out that my money wasn1t there. After months and 
months I got almost all of it back from the law society. It was money my 
friends had donated."

The cash had been donated to help Wakeford's high legal costs. He hopes to 
raise another $15,000 to launch an appeal to fight for a government supply 
of pot.

"I'm really down right now. I'm licking my wounds, and I'm sick and tired. 
Hopefully that1ll all pass and I'll be spunky again."

Wakeford fought in court for years and won what1s called a Section 56 
exemption in 1999, which gives him the "legal right to use marijuana and 
grow it."