Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jul 2011
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Kent Spencer, The Province

MEDICAL POT SHOP OWNER SLAMS POLICE

Dispensary Proprietor Angry After RCMP Seize Four Kilograms Of
Marijuana Intended for the Sick

The owner of a medical marijuana dispensary in Langley City is crying
foul over a police raid which confiscated about four kilograms of weed
for sick people.

Randy Caine, who once challenged the country's marijuana statutes all
the way up to the Supreme Court, says helping people with chronic pain
should not be a criminal offence.

"If my greatest fault was being overly helpful to sick people, is that
a criminal offence?" Caine said Friday.

"I have been transparent about medical assistance with the authorities
from the start. I had no idea they were this concerned. I was
blindsided," said Caine.

Langley RCMP say five police officers wearing bulletproof jackets
executed a search warrant on July 19 after receiving "numerous" complaints.

Cst. Jillian Roberts said up to four kilograms of marijuana was
seized, as well as brownies and cookies.

She said the dispensary is not legally authorized by any authority or
legislation in Canada.

Caine, meanwhile, said he has legitimacy -- a licence issued by Health
Canada. The country's top health regulator has issued 10,000 medical
marijuana licences.

But Caine admits he was distributing to some 200 patients even though
his licence only permitted two.

He justified the difference on the basis of a 2009 B.C. Supreme Court
ruling from Madam Justice M. Marvyn Koenigsberg concerning a case
about patients' rights.

Koenigsberg struck down a section of law which said, in effect, that
if you're a designated grower, growing the drug for an authorized
person, you can only grow for that single person.

Dispensary manager Carol Gwilt admitted the relevant laws are
hazy.

"Medical marijuana is a grey market, but it's a necessary market," she
said. "We're a small business operated as a community-based model."

Caine said his marijuana is obtained from small private growers who
are not connected with the huge, illegal, gang-based trade in B.C.

He said clients come by appointment only and must have a doctor's
recommendation in writing.

He was not granted a business licence by city hall for the tidylooking
premises, which are located on the second floor of a commercial
building in the 20200 block of Fraser Highway. The lower entrance is
secured by a coded lock.

Gwilt said the dispensary is resolved to continue servicing customers,
whose diseases include cancer, AIDS and epilepsy.

"We have clients who need service in a huge way. They are suffering,"
said Gwilt.

Caine, 57, who was raised in nearby Surrey, said he knows the
community "has a heart."

"I think this will be a defining moment about how this community takes
care of its sick," said Caine.

RCMP said the investigation in continuing. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.