Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jul 2012
Source: Comox Valley Record (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Comox Valley Record
Contact:  http://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/784

COURTENAY MAN FIGHTING TRAFFICKING CHARGE

On behalf of the North Island Compassion Club, a press conference was
held Thursday morning at the Courtenay courthouse to discuss medical
marijuana.

NICC, a B.C. non-profit society, has been providing cannabis marijuana
in the Comox Valley for medicinal and therapeutic purposes for over 12
years.

NICC openly operated a dispensary at Ernie Yacub's rented home at 719
Sixth St. in Courtenay for over seven years with no police
intervention until it was suddenly raided in February 2011. Yacub, a
longtime resident of the Comox Valley who has never been in trouble
with the law, has been charged with possession for the purpose of
trafficking,

Despite being well-informed that NICC was opening a dispensary, the
RCMP never previously came to the house for any reason except once to
inform the residents that they were investigating a crackhouse around
the corner.

Many NICC members who rely on cannabis for their critical and chronic
illnesses were traumatized by the raid and their fear of the police
has led them to seek other providers, often turning to street dealers
for more expensive and poorer quality marijuana or, worse, suffering
without medicine.

"I welcome the opportunity to inform people that the law is broken.
It's wrong," Yacub said Thursday. "People have a right to this
medicine which does all kind of amazing, wonderful things for people.
It's a plant. That's all it is."

Yacub's lawyer, Kirk Tousaw of Cobble Hill, has successfully litigated
several Charter challenges to the validity of the federal government's
medical marijuana program.

"It is outrageous that taxpayer dollars continue to be wasted
investigating, arresting and prosecuting legitimate medical marijuana
providers, particularly when the Health Canada scheme has repeatedly
been found unconstitutional in the Courts," Tousaw said. "On 18 July
we filed a Notice of Constitutional Question and will ask the court to
throw out the charges against Mr. Yacub and, again, rule that the
federal government's restrictive scheme violates the Charter rights of
the NICC membership."

Many people are under the illusion that possession of marijuana is
legal in B.C., that medical use is supported by the government, and
that compassion clubs are legal dispensaries. As it turns out, medical
marijuana dispensaries like NICC have come under fire repeatedly in
recently months.

"We fully expect to demonstrate to the provincial court here in
Courtenay that the system the federal government has set up be
ineffective and continues to deny patients the ability to access this
safe and effect natural health product," Tousaw explained. "We hope
that a successful result in this case will finally drive home to the
Harper Conservative government that Canadians - critically and
chronically ill Canadians - deserve safe, unfettered access to medical
marijuana to treat their serious symptoms and conditions."

He added the case is another in a long series of Charter
challenges.

"I fully anticipate that Mr. Yacub's actions will be vindicated by the
court and that the government will again be told to fix its broken
system," says Tousaw.

Yacub will return to court Aug. 23 to fix a date for
trial.

- - With a file from North Island Compassion Club
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt