Pubdate: Thu, 22 May 2014
Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Kamloops This Week
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

RCMP RAID ON POT STORE WAS INDEED POOR IDEA

The reasons given by the Crown for dropping charges against the owner 
of a Kamloops marijuana dispensary put the focus back on those 
responsible for the ill-advised raid in November 2011.

Back then, Mounties swarmed Carl Anderson's North Kamloops shop, 
where he was arrested and his storefront was raided.

The raid was done under the command of then-Kamloops RCMP Supt. Yves 
Lacasse, a hardline war-on-drugs adherent.

Anderson and co-accused Wesley Jenkins were hoping to use the charges 
against them as a springboard to a Charter challenge of marijuana 
laws, but that path ended with Crown's decision on Wednesday, May 21, 
to drop all charges.

The reason?

Crown cited the "relatively small amount" of pot found in the 
dispensary and the fact marijuana was being sold to people with 
Health Canada licences and to others who had a medical need to use 
pot as determined by their doctors.

Clearly, this was not a case of a dealer selling to anybody coming by 
for a fix, yet the fervor with which the local Mounties attacked the 
assignment would have led many to believe Pablo Escobar had been 
resurrected and had installed his Medellin Cartel on Tranquille Road.

Those who knew what Anderson was operating were aware in 2011 what 
the Crown has conceded this week.

The question is: Why didn't the Mounties also know? And, if they did, 
why on earth would they undertake such a pointless raid that served 
only to deprive people of medically necessary marijuana and to 
further the fallacious fight that is the war on drugs, in particular marijuana?

The Crown also cited as a reason to drop charges "the changing 
landscape of the law in relation to medical marijuana resulting from 
ongoing litigation before our higher courts."

In other words, it is only a matter of time until attacking marijuana 
culture with the tenacity of a Prohibition-era FBI agent is 
considered, rightly, a relic of the past.

Here's hoping the Mounties across Canada learn from this ill-fated 
raid and from the resulting decision by the Crown.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom