Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jun 2014
Source: Coast, The (CN NS)
Copyright: 2014 Coast Publishing
Contact:  http://www.thecoast.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3170
Author: Hilary Beaumont
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

Hazy situation

The THC Club Lives in a Grey Area for Medicinal Marijuana Users

The THC Club is growing. The medicinal marijuana club that police 
raided last summer in Porters Lake has opened Halifax's only vapour 
lounge on Gottingen Street---but whether it's legal remains to be seen.

Lounge owners Chris Enns and Sherri Reeve, who both face drug charges 
as a result of last year's raid, say they're operating in a legal 
grey area. During an interview at the new bong shop and vapour 
lounge, the owners---who are licensed under Health Canada's medical 
marijuana program---smoked a vapourizer while their dog Tripper, who 
takes cannabis oil for a mound of tumours near his tail, wanders 
around the shop.

Along with sales of pipes and other paraphernalia, the business will 
allow those with medical marijuana licenses to kick back and smoke 
their government-approved bud on couches at the back of the shop. 
Similar lounges exist in Vancouver and Toronto.

Here's the part the federal government might not like: Enns, who is 
only licensed to grow marijuana for a maximum of two people, says he 
is willing to sell his weed to licensed customers. "Anyone who has a 
license, I'll step out on a limb and sell the excess from my production."

Enns and Reeve know they could face additional charges and jail time, 
but say people with fast-moving cancer and severe epilepsy have 
contacted the THC Club to try cannabis for their pain. In some cases, 
Reeve says, terminal cancer patients don't have enough time before 
their lives end to get a marijuana license and grow their own plants 
or have someone grow for them.

"When somebody calls you with pancreatic cancer, I'm in tears when I 
hang up the phone," Reeve says. "I feel for those people. I can't say 
no when they don't have anything else, the government is abandoning 
them. In a lot of cases we're their last comfort on their way out of life.

"I'm also the person who takes stray dogs in off the street," she adds.

Lately Canada's weed rules are hazy. Earlier this year the federal 
government planned to end licensed marijuana users' ability to grow 
pot at home, but a March federal court ruling temporarily trumped the 
new rules, and for now people like Enns can continue to grow.

Selling is a different matter. In March 2013, police seized $50,000 
in cash, 10 pounds of cannabis, 1,000 capsules of hash oil and 
psilocybin mushrooms from the THC Club's Porters Lake location and 
Enns' home. Both Enns and Reeve face trafficking charges as a result 
of the raid.

Enns plans to ask for a Charter challenge to Canada's marijuana laws 
at his court date in August. The couple is also suing the Halifax 
Regional Police, alleging an officer used excessive force when 
arresting Reeve in May 2013. They were charged with assaulting and 
obstructing an officer.

"Whether or not what we do is illegal will be determined by the 
courts in that constitutional challenge," Enns says. "My perspective 
is we're not doing anything that crosses the line."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom