Pubdate: Sat, 10 Nov 2012
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Guelph Mercury Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://news.guelphmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418
Author: Greg Mercer

GUELPH CANNABIS CLUB CHARGES GO UP IN SMOKE

Well, that was a big waste of time and money. But wasn't that the point?

Charges against the founder and two employees of the Medical Cannabis 
Centre of Guelph were dropped by Justice Bruce Durno this week after 
the case was dragged through the courts for more than two years. 
That's about two years too late.

A little refresher. The Baker Street cannabis club was raided by 
Guelph police in May 2010. They found an estimated $100,000 in 
marijuana and cash at the local compassion club and five other addresses.

In the raid, police also seized a quantity of marijuana-laced 
muffins, scones, cakes and cookies. Sounds like one of my 
grandmother's tea parties, minus the marijuana, not the tools of 
violent criminals. But I digress.

The marijuana the club sold was supposed to be for medical uses - 
members either had Health Canada's permission or something like a 
doctor's consent to use the herb to treat a variety of chronic 
medical conditions. We're talking dangerous, scary people here, from 
cancer sufferers to those afflicted with HIV and Hepatitis C.

The club's founder, Rade Kovacevic, had a Health Canada licence that 
allowed him to possess or grow 30 marijuana plants. He uses marijuana 
to treat myofascial pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, degenerative disc 
disease and three herniated discs.

Health Canada says marijuana can be a therapeutic drug with real 
medical benefits for some people. You can get a physician's 
prescription for it, and almost 5,000 Canadians have. The government 
pays a Saskatchewan firm to grow marijuana for it, and hundreds more 
Canadians have federal licences to grow their own pot with seeds from 
that company.

But when it comes to law enforcement, medical marijuana clubs still 
exist in a legal grey area. And that's at the heart of the mess 
around Guelph's cannabis club.

Whatever you think of medical marijuana, what Kovacevic and his staff 
were really guilty of was being an easy target for police. They 
maintained a downtown office and kept specific hours of operations. 
They had a website. Kovacevic didn't hide his business - he gave 
interviews, posed for newspaper photos and promoted it how ever he could.

To bust the club, a Guelph police officer posed as a doctor over the 
phone, allowing at least three patients who were really undercover 
investigators to get a medical marijuana licence through the centre. 
Hardly the undercover operation of the century.

On Tuesday, the same day voters in two U.S. states voted to legalize 
marijuana, Justice Durno tossed out the charges against the club's 
staff, letting the case go up in smoke.

They didn't get off the hook completely. In a joint submission - no 
pun intended - to the court, the cannabis club's corporate entity 
plead guilty to a single count of possession of more than three 
kilograms of pot for the purpose of trafficking.

For that, the club still has a steep fine to pay, some $10,000. But 
the staff avoid individual criminal charges. Meanwhile, one of the 
other staff members has already branched out and started a medical 
marijuana club in Hamilton.

The irony in this case is that part of the reason it fell apart was 
because of the drug addictions of one of the key investigating officers.

Defense lawyers seized on the role of Guelph police Const. Chris 
Panylo, a drug unit investigator whose affidavit got the police the 
original search warrant. Panylo, with his own history of substance 
abuse, was fined and put on probation in October after pleading 
guilty to stealing methadone that was seized in a different police 
investigation.

So after all this, are we any further along? Are our streets any 
safer after all the resources thrown at shutting down the club and 
forcing its members to go to the black market for their medical marijuana?

And as for Guelph's fledgling cannabis club? After this mess, they 
simply plan get back into business by applying for a new licence 
under the Medical Marijuana Act.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom