Pubdate: Sun, 21 Mar 2010
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Elise Stolte
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

LUDWIG HAS EXPLANATION FOR SEIZED MARIJUANA

Environmental activist Wiebo Ludwig says there are innocent 
explanations for the explosive chemicals, marijuana and books on 
terrorism that RCMP seized in a recent raid on his Trickle Creek farm.

Like the small amount of potassium nitrate, for example. That was 
leftover from when his son-in-law made play rockets with his eight 
children, Ludwig said on Saturday.

A book called Disruptive Terrorism, found on his nightstand, was a 
gift from a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, he said. 
"I was going through it out of curiosity."

Other chemistry books are used for home-schooling children at the farm.

As for the 75 grams of marijuana found stored in an irrigation shed, 
that's used for pain control for his goats when they give birth. "To 
make it easier for them," he said.

One of his daughters also uses marijuana to control pain during menstruation.

"We're not pushing marijuana, but we thought we'd try it," Ludwig 
said. "These plants don't belong to the government. They were given 
by God to mankind. If people want to abuse them, that's another 
thing. They (the government) should deal with the abusers, not 
tighten things up for everybody."

Ludwig, his family and the family of Richard Boonstra live on a farm 
north of Hythe in northwestern Alberta, about 40 kilometres from 
Tomslake, B.C., where a series of bombs have damaged oil and gas 
pipelines. He has a long-standing fight with oil and gas companies in 
the area and argues their wells have poisoned his animals and caused 
several women to have stillbirths.

RCMP presented a warrant to search Ludwig's property on Jan. 8, 
stating they had reason to believe evidence could be found on the 
farm. They said DNA evidence tied him to two letters sent to 
newspapers about the Encana bombings. They were looking for 
computers, printers, audio-visual equipment and stationery as well as 
boots that could be linked to the attacks, and bomb-making materials, 
specifically explosives stolen from oil and gas work sites across the 
Alberta-B. C. border.

Ludwig was arrested the day RCMP served the warrant, but he was 
released after 24 hours. No charges have been laid against anyone 
living in the compound.

Almost 150 officers took shifts combing the property for four days. 
They also seized several boxes of guns and knives that Ludwig said 
are used by the family for hunting and tracking in the woods just 
north of the farm.

Ludwig said he was surprised at the number of "inert" items RCMP

took from the farm. Their final tally included office supplies, pens, 
diaries, cassette tapes -- (including those featuring the music of 
Lord of the Dance and MuchMusic), various lengths of copper wires and 
pipes, five mostly entry-level chemistry textbooks and one on electronics.

Some of the items were the same of those taken and returned in a 
search 10 years ago, he said.

"Why take all this other stuff? What's the point?" he said. "They 
just load up box after box of stuff. It all gets published and your 
privacy is hung out to dry on the public clothesline. It's 
ridiculous, but that's where we're at. We're in this together."

The pellet guns his children use have been returned, along with the 
hunting knifes and crossbows, he said, and police promised his 
computer and printer would be returned within days.

He said he has been told other items will be returned within the next 
two or three weeks.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom