Pubdate: Sat, 20 Sep 2014
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2014 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://www.herald.ns.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Selena Ross

SUPPORTERS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA SHOP MARCH ON HALIFAX POLICE HEADQUARTERS

Halifax police were nowhere to be seen as 50 people passed around
joints on their front steps Friday afternoon.

The "smoke-in" was in protest of the recent raid of Farm Assists, a
medical marijuana shop on Gottingen Street.

"When all of the nasty, addictive, victim-causing drugs proliferate
across this province, why did you target people that were using
cannabis as medicine?" shop owner Chris Enns shouted into a megaphone
in front of Halifax Regional Police headquarters.

Enns, 29, and the shop's other owner, his girlfriend Sherri Reeve,
both face charges from the raid, including trafficking marijuana,
possession for the purpose of trafficking and production.

Supporters holding hand-drawn signs, some wearing masks, marched down
Gottingen from the shop, near the corner of Buddy Daye Street, to
police headquarters at the corner of Cogswell Street.

One woman's sign read: If I stole your meds I'd be in prison. Stop the
cops.

A man's sign read: We are patients, not criminals. Stop treating us
like them.

As they marched, some smoking joints, several drivers honked and
people came out of stores on Gottingen to clap and cheer.

The driver of a Metro Transit bus leaned on his horn for a few
moments.

A uniformed officer drove by in a Halifax Regional Police cruiser,
glaring out the window before carrying on.

In the crowd were some people who drove from outside Halifax, saying
they wanted to show that many medical marijuana users are living in
flux as Canada's laws and mores around the drug change quickly.

"We made people aware that Chris is not the only one," said Bert
Martin, a Valley resident. "We could all have been in his shoes. They
pick on him because he's an easy target, obviously."

Martin and his wife, Lavina, are approved medical marijuana users who
grow their own pot.

Health Canada changed the rules around medical marijuana use on April
1, stopping homegrown weed production in favour of regulated
commercial growers who would sell to users with prescriptions.

However, Health Canada's process of approving the applications to
become a commercial grower are going slowly, and some on the march
said commercially grown marijuana is too expensive.

Chris, a 28-year-old who pushed a friend's baby in a stroller during
the march and declined to give his last name, said he wasn't a member
of Farm Assists but came to support friends and family who have used
medical marijuana, including his brother-in-law.

"The only thing that got him through chemo, to allow him to eat and
stay healthy through that process, was marijuana," he said.

Chris said pills containing tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical in
marijuana that is more commonly known as THC, were "obscenely costly"
and he thought medical marijuana users should be legally able to get
the drug at any time from whatever source they prefer.

There are several medical marijuana dispensaries across the country,
to which local police often turn a blind eye.

A Halifax Regional Police spokesman could not be reached Friday for
comment.

Deputy Police Chief Bill Moore told Metro News this month that the
raid was a response to public complaints about Farm Assists and that
police are bound to enforce existing laws, even though public opinion
may be changing.

Those who disagree with the laws have the right to make their case
before the courts, he said.

"The beautiful thing about Canada is we have due process," he said.
"So an individual has the right to be able to have their side of this
thing heard."
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MAP posted-by: Matt