Pubdate: Mon, 28 Feb 2000
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2000 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Author: Zev Singer

'THE MINISTER OF MARIJUANA'

B.C. Man Preaches The Gospel Of Holy Smoke

The Bible was already in the dresser drawer at the Travelodge Hotel.
The marijuana and the blow-torch he had to bring himself.

As the Rev. [name redacted] inhales the essence of the
ever-controversial plant, he is actually not in violation of the
no-smoking sign posted on the door of his room at the Carling Avenue
hotel. First grinding the plant with a small, portable machine, he
then balls up the powder into small lumps which he presses between two
red-hot knives. The vapour, not smoke, thereby produced is what he
inhales.

He holds the base of the blow-torch between his legs as he does it,
adept enough in the process to execute it in the car -- perhaps not
accidentally green -- in which he has just driven to Ottawa all the
way from Vancouver.

Mr. [name redacted], the leader of a group called "Holy Smoke" has come to
bring his pro-cannabis message straight to the government.

He has made the trip for a Health Canada conference being hosted today
at the hotel on the therapeutic uses of marijuana.

For the occasion, the hotel is even setting aside a room in which
people can take their "medication." In a letter to guests, the
Travelodge's "catering sales manager," Tamara Lee Collins, asks guests
not to light up in their rooms, but to use the dedicated room. "Due to
the sensitivity and nature of cannabis," the letter says, "it would be
greatly appreciated by the hotel management if you would refrain from
smoking this substance in your room as it is not permitted. We are
happy to provide the Rotary Room, located on the lower level of the
hotel, where this will be accepted and available to you 24 hours a
day."

On the agenda of the conference will be discussions of the latest
scientific research on the medicinal uses of the plant and sessions on
the legal process of obtaining medical exemptions.

Mr. [name redacted]'s agenda, however, is a little more grand. "I think
Health Canada should create a Ministry of Marijuana, and they should
make me minister."

Mr. [name redacted]'s current designation as minister was obtained a little
less than a year ago to the Universal Life Church in Modesta,
California, where the 30-year-old B.C. native was ordained.

Although Mr. [name redacted] was given official governmental permission to
use marijuana based on his glaucoma, he considers his exemption from
the law to be "medical-religious."

"I have eight gigs of memory," he says pointing at his laptop
computer, "to prove that Jesus smoked marijuana." Giving an example,
he says, "He was given frankincense at his birth!"

His church, he adds, is non-denominational. "The Buddha ate a hemp
seed every day. And Moses was inspired by a burning bush."

Mr. [name redacted] believes that the hemp plant is capable of solving a lot
of the world's woes. "It provides food, fuel, fibre and medicine."
Canada specifically could benefit, by letting farmers grow hemp
"instead of paying them not to grow crops," he says. "It could end
debt and end taxes. I want to talk to Chretien about this."

Beneath his flamboyant talk, Mr. [name redacted] has a message about which he
is very serious. He says that although the Canadian government is now
giving legal exemptions to people with medical needs, there is still
no legal supply of marijuana.

The government, he says, is doing nothing more than research. "They
are not even looking at supply."

People who need it, even those legally allowed to use it, depend on
organizations like his, which grow the plant and distribute it in
small amounts. Last October, only two months after he was granted a
personal exemption, his organization's farm was raided and 160
kilograms of marijuana, which he says has a street value of over $1
million, were seized.

He says he needs it for the 1,500 members of his group who are
suffering without it. "We need to palliatively take care of our sick
and dying."

Last month a B.C. judge dropped charges against a man transporting six
kilograms of marijuana to a similar organization in Vancouver called
the Compassion Club. In his ruling, the judge said that because it is
not available at pharmacies, people who need it must get it somewhere.

Mr. [name redacted] will ask Health Canada today to grant permission to Holy
Smoke as an organization to grow and distribute marijuana, a
permission that no organization has received. 
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