SASKATOON – A medical marijuana-user has filed a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission following a raid at a Saskatoon pot dispensary last month. On Oct. 29, two search warrants were executed; one at a home and the other at the Saskatchewan Compassion Club.
As part of “Project Fextern,” police were conducting an investigation into the medical marijuana dispensary. Four people were arrested following the Saskatoon integrated drug enforcement street team’s (SIDEST) investigation and faced charges of trafficking and possession of marijuana.
Saskatchewan Compassion Club owner Mark Hauk was one of the four who were arrested and later released on bail. He is scheduled to appear in Saskatoon provincial court on Thursday.
Kelly Anderson, 54, was at a rally held Nov. 7 at police headquarters protesting the closure of the unlicensed dispensary. The Compassion Club re-opened after the raid but without marijuana.
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“When you come out to these rallies, you don’t see young ‘stoners,’ for lack again of a better thing to say. You see old people supporting the right to access to medicine, you see people from all walks of life and all sorts of illnesses,” said Anderson.
“That’s what all the naysayers don’t see. They don’t see this is medicine. They see this as just a bunch of stoners wanting legal access to a recreational drug and that’s not what it is, it’s all about access to medicine.”
Anderson says he’s been using medical marijuana for a number of years, even before it became legal, as a painkiller. He cites severe arthritis and having a surgical knee procedure for getting his legal prescription.
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Police said Project Fextern was treated like any other drug investigation and was executed because it’s illegal to sell or produce marijuana through a dispensary unless approved by Health Canada.
“It’s true enough there’s no regulations in place, but Mark Hauk went to the city, he asked them to regulate it and they didn’t so he was self-regulating until they were able to put regulations in place and instead of putting regulations in place, they went and shut it down,” said Anderson.
Anderson claims the closure denied him access and was discrimination based on a medicine that he, as an ill person, chooses to use.
“Having the medicine there and then having it taken away from us is incredibly cruel, this is discrimination,” said Anderson.
“I have filed a human rights action against the mayor and the Saskatoon Police Service.”
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The Saskatoon Police Service assured people with prescriptions for medicinal marijuana that they can go through several legally licensed producers and dispensers.
“I’ve got to know the Compassion Club over the last couple of months. I volunteered some time and talked to people and you listen to people and a lot of them tell their stories about how it’s helped their loved ones and people with MS, people with cancer and Crohn’s disease and severe arthritis.”
SIDEST considered that if action was not taken, more “clubs” would open and illegally sell marijuana.
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Anderson could not comment on how long it will take the commission to process his complaint.
“I want this resolved. I want this taken care of so that these dispensaries can exist until the municipal government or the federal government can come and put up the regulations, otherwise let these guys self-regulate,” said Anderson.
“Laws need to catch up.”
There are no licensed medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Canada.
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