Posted: 2/21/2005 2:06:00 PM EDT
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Pot activist files suit for compensation after seizure of medical marijuana Monday February 21, 2005 ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia (AP) Pot activist Brian Carlisle, whose medical marijuana was seized by police in this town a few miles north of Sumas, Wash., is suing for compensation. Carlisle, 35, who has a Health Canada exemption to cultivate marijuana to ease symptoms of AIDS, Hepatitis C and glaucoma, has filed a lawsuit for $19,250 (US$15,790) in British Columbia Supreme Court against police and the town. The case stems from a raid Jan. 6 in which police seized 2,090 marijuana on the property of Carlisle's friend and fellow marijuana activist, Tim Felger. Carlisle was allowed to retrieve 25 plants he was growing on the property but is seeking compensation for 4\ pounds of dried pot that police seized and refused to return. Under Canada's Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, Carlisle is allowed to possess about one-third of a pound, store more than 4 pounds and grow up to 19 indoor and five outdoor plants. ``We are extremely understanding of the need for medicinal marijuana for certain individuals that have gone through the proper channels of being licensed,'' Police Constable Shinder Kirk said, ``but at issue here, in addition to those 25 plants, there were more than 2,000 plants.'' It's the second time Carlisle, a criminology student and former law clerk, has brought a case against police for confiscating his pot. In January 2003 Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo ordered Royal Canadian Mounted Police to return plants and equipment that were taken from Carlisle's former home in Hope in June 2001. In the Abbotsford raid, Felger and an associate were arrested and Felger was later charged with production of marijuana and possession, his third such charge in recent years. Carlisle must find a new place to grow his medical marijuana because local ordinances require that electricity be cut off after police identify an illegal growing operation. He doesn't want to grow his own at home because thieves invaded his former residence last September in Chilliwack, where for nearly two years he ran the Holy Smoke Healing Center until the compassion club was shut down last year. Sounds like he screwed up by growing more than allowed and in the wrong place. 
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nice name