Pubdate: Thu, 12 May 2005
Source: here (Saint John, CN NK)
Copyright: 2005, here publishing inc.
Contact:  http://www.heresj.com/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

UP IN SMOKE

Lynn Wood Awaits Sentencing on Trafficking Charge After Cannabis Cafe
Closure. Local Compassion Club Members Left Out in the Cold

When you're a florist, not everything is bound to come up roses. Just
ask Allen Merritt. The 25-year year veteran of the floral industry has
had more than his fair share of misfortune - though he'd probably talk
about most of it with a crooked smile on his face, and enough laughs
to make you smile with him.

His heavy head of black curls shaking back and forth, the
cane-carrying man is full of stories and ambition. Having battled with
HIV for close to 18 years, Merritt has lived through bouts of disease
and poverty in good humour, though his blue eyes darken as he
describes his arrest at the Cannabis Caf? back in 2003.

Levelling his dark brows, Merritt visibly shakes as he thinks back
about his experience. Charged with drug possession while waiting for
his medical grant for marijuana use, Merritt was arrested at the caf?
and removed from the site in his wheelchair. When asked why the public
hadn't heard the verdict of his trial, Merritt broke out into a laugh.
"Neither have I," said Merritt, who never received a trial date for
the charge put forth by the Saint John Police. "The lawyer charged me
150 bucks and that's the last [I heard of it]." Shortly after his
arrest, Merritt received his medical grant freeing him to use
marijuana to treat symptoms of his condition. Continuing to use the
Cannabis Caf? as a location to supply him with clean, well-documented
medicine, Merritt regarded the club as a location where he felt safe.

Merritt was one of over 150 members of the Cannabis Caf? left out in
the cold when it closed its doors three weeks ago, almost exactly a
year after the drug bust that lead to owner Lynn Wood's drug
trafficking conviction. Wood, who had been anticipating sentencing on
May 12, closed the caf? to focus on her family and herself just prior
to the judge's final verdict.

"I thought it was a very noble thing that Linda and Jim would do,"
said Merritt, discussing the two owners' decision to open the
compassion club to the cannabis using community of Saint John.
Modelled after compassion clubs in Montreal and Toronto, the Cannabis
Caf? had statutory disclaimers stating that those who used marijuana
on site had medical permission to do so - and a doctor's signature and
confirmation to back this up before they were able to purchase
marijuana from the caf?.

"There is a need for this service," said Merritt.

"A lot of people use marijuana and need a [safe supplier]." Now
working with a designated grower, Merritt is able to supply himself
with clean and reliable medication, and is comfortable despite the
club's closure. However, not all are in his situation.

"I believe that [being a compassionate club] was what [Wood] was
trying to set up," said Merritt. "But then again Lynn and Jim are more
in the cannabis pop culture. I approach Cannabis from a medicinal
perspective." Lynn Wood understands her uncertain future with uncanny
clarity. The mother of three - currently expecting her fourth - has
been awaiting sentencing on her trafficking conviction for close to
three months. Her sentencing, anticipated for May 12, has been delayed
again, putting her life and the life of her family on hold.

Wood explained that she has had city inspectors of every sort try to
shut her down in almost every location that the Cannabis Caf? has set
up in Saint John since it opened. Having been forced to move their
shop five times, Wood says it was never her intention to put the caf?
next to the branch police office on Canterbury Street - but simply a
matter of necessity.

"We basically had to find another spot after 86 King Street, and that
proved virtually impossible," said Wood. "We had all kinds of excuses
- - one landlord said it was against his religion.

Finally someone was desperate enough for money, and we moved in across
from police station." Since the April 23, 2004, bust at the Cannabis
Caf? leading to her trafficking trial, Wood has understood that her
quality of life, her business, and her family have been up in the air.
"It's been a lot to deal with between the trial, the pregnancy, and
the closing of our business," said Wood, obviously torn about the
recent decision to close the caf?. "It was our source of income, our
whole life." According to the trial record, on the day of the bust an
undercover police officer entered Wood's establishment and obtained a
statutory disclaimer from caf? employee Dane Richards.

The peace officer then went offsite with the form, which was filled
out with erroneous information, and the officer returned.

Richards, according to his testimony, called the doctor's office
listed on the form, and spoke with what he thought was a registered
medical doctor. The contrived office number was answered - and the
person at the end of the line then claimed to be a doctor who had
given the undercover officer medical permission to use marijuana as
treatment for his condition. After this, Richards sold the peace
officer marijuana, and Wood as owner of the establishment was then
charged with trafficking.

Woods' attorney, Rick Northrup, was unable to find fully legal grounds
for an entrapment defence. Instead, he put forward a defence on the
grounds of the caf? being an active compassion club. This was thrown
out by the trial judge due to two factors, the presence of underage
members, and two possible sources of profitable income - the marijuana
itself, and the store merchandise which was sold on site.

"I had no choice but to run [the club] out of my store," said Wood,
who had thousands of dollars in legal merchandise seized and not
returned after the conclusion of the trial, the majority of which was
not used as evidence. "I'm only one person." Wood also defends the
cost of the marijuana sold from her caf?, which an RCMP drug
trafficking and packaging distribution expert testifying that the
location found itself outside of range of profitability.

"Our prices were about half of the regular street value," said Jim
Wood, Lynn's husband.

"The RCMP specialist testified that our business was in no way a
standard drug operation. In a standard drug operation your picture
isn't taken and you don't have to fill out an application form."
Finally, in defence of her underage member, Wood pleads ignorant. The
minor, who went on record during the trial, testified to having lied
about his age in order to obtain membership at the compassion club.

"We're waiting for sentencing before we think about the appeal," said
Wood. "I didn't come this far to be thought of as a criminal, but
that's the way the judge and prosecution portrayed me." With the trial
up in the air and compassion club members currently without a venue,
marijuana advocate and user Allen Merritt isn't surprised with what he
regards as an unfortunate outcome for Saint John.

"When you remove all personal things from it, a law was broken," said
Merritt. "In this society that we live in, if you break a law, and are
charged and convicted you have to be punished.

That's why we have judges." Merritt thinks that forward thinkers like
the Woods may have been ahead of their time. But he hopes that in the
not too distant future the Cannabis Caf? or a location like it will be
opening its doors to the community again.

"Saint John's not ready for a cannabis caf?," said Merrit, "but we're
getting warmer." 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake