HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
Medical Marijuana Exemptee Jailed Again
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Apr 2002
Source: Independent, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 Conolly Publishing Ltd.
Contact: http://www.eastnorthumberland.com/thisweek.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1596
Author: Ben Rutledge
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)
MEDICAL MARIJUANA EXEMPTEE JAILED AGAIN
Diane Bruce was arrested by Northumberland OPP officers Monday morning when
she reported for her weekly "sign in," one of her current bail conditions.
Her lawyer, David McCaskill, told a reporter from The Independent that
Bruce was arrested for "breaching the terms of her recognizance."
Bruce made headlines last October when Kawartha Combined Forces Drug Squad
officers raided her Cramahe Township home about a week after this newspaper
printed a feature story about the medical use of marijuana. The story
outlined Bruce's attempt to operate Lady Dyz Helping Hands, founded by her
to provide free marijuana to more than 40 people given Health Canada's
permission to possess and use the herb.
After last year's bust, Bruce spent nine days in the Whitby jail waiting
for a bail hearing. Suffering from fibromyalgia, intestinal illnesses, and
neck and back injuries, Bruce was allowed only an occasional aspirin to
ease her pain during that time in jail.
Steven Bacon, one of Canada's first medical marijuana exemptees, has
supported Bruce throughout her ordeal. In a telephone interview, Bacon said
Diane was arrested April 22 "because she signed in on Tuesday last week
instead of Monday, even though her doctor had written a letter explaining why."
Bruce told a reporter recently that she was suffering because she had no
legal access to marijuana locally. Exemptees in British Columbia had
offered her some of their medicine, but because they would not send
marijuana through the mail, Bruce would arrange to travel to that province
to pick it up, she said.
According to McCaskill, Bruce travelled to B.C. as per her plan, but
"flight complications" delayed her return to Ontario until Tuesday, April 16.
"I understand that (Bruce) went straight to the Cobourg OPP office from the
airport and signed in," McCaskill said. "She said she had a great
conversation with officers there."
McCaskill said Bruce was arrested when "signing in as normally required" on
Monday. Bacon notified him of her arrest immediately, but by the time he
contacted officials in Cobourg, Justice of the Peace P. McHenry had ordered
her jailed pending another bail hearing, slated for April 24.
"I'm not sure what they're trying to prove here," McCaskill said. "I'm told
the OPP even phoned Diane's doctor last week, and he confirmed she was
out-of-province for medical reasons."
"It certainly sounds like sour grapes to me," he said. "This is a small
technical breech at best."
McCaskill was alluding to confirmed reports that show OPP officers visited
Bruce's marijuana garden up to six months before the October raid. A
reporter from The Independent viewed a photograph of one uniformed OPP
officer standing in shoulder-high marijuana plants at Bruce's property in
September.
Bruce has said repeatedly she was growing marijuana only for people
exempted under Section 56 of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,
and that she was "doing nothing wrong."
"I even asked police officers to sit on (Lady Dyz) board of directors," she
said during an earlier interview. "I figured if the cops knew all along
that I was growing marijuana, and didn't say anything, then I was okay."
Calls to Cobourg OPP officer Doug Lewis, who was in charge of Bruce's
arrest this week, were not returned.
OPP Detective Constable John Murphy, who has been mentioned in earlier
stories about Bruce's marijuana bust, said he was "no longer involved in
the case," but believed Bruce was arrested because "she was out on a
recognizance and failed to sign in at the appropriate time."
Bacon said he attended court in Cobourg on Monday "to speak for Diane," but
was told by an OPP officer to "shut the hell up because I was this close to
being arrested myself." He said he witnessed Bruce "bent double in pain" as
she was being led away to jail.
"This woman is too sick to be sitting in jail without medication," Bacon
said. "This goes on all the time, and police get away with it because they
always see criminals instead of sick people with exemptions."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex