North Island Compassion Club operator's lawyer seeks to have marijuana charge thrown out
Lawyer Kirk Tousaw has filed a notice in Courtenay Provincial Court to have charges dismissed against a Vancouver Island provider of medicinal marijuana.
Tousaw spoke to the media today (July 18) in Courtenay, where his client Ernie Yacub ran the North Island Compassion Club nonprofit society’s dispensary for seven years from his rented home.
Like all similar societies provincewide, NICC’s dispensary provided medicinal marijuana to people in the area for 12 years, Tousaw noted in the media release sent following the conference.
After never having a run-in with the law in his lifetime, Yacub's premises were raided in February 2011 by the RCMP; Yacub was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.
“It is outrageous that taxpayer dollars continue to be wasted investigating, arresting and prosecuting legitimate medical marijuana providers, particularly when the Health Canada scheme has been repeatedly found unconstitutional in the Courts,” Tousaw claimed.
Tousaw stated that he hoped the lower court would throw out the charges against Yacub and “rule that the federal government’s restrictive scheme violates the Charter rights of the NICC membership”.
Comments
4 Comments
jonny .
Jul 19, 2012 at 2:12pm
I talked to one of the cops that is in charge of the Vancouver police department that handles grow ops and drug trafficking. He said they know about so many more grow ops than they could ever bust, so they focus only on the ones run by the most dangerous criminals. He said they dont bother with the little guys because they dont have nearly enough resources.
So if they went after some little medical grower guy, its not because there werent any bigger guys to fry (cause there definitely are), its because someone wanted to make a political statement.
What a waste of time and money. Go after the gangs and people who sell cocaine and hard core drugs!
ernie yacub
Jul 19, 2012 at 7:25pm
johny, you're right on the money, they should be going after the hard core drugs, especially the ones you get from your neighbourhood drug store - methadone, valium, xanax, vicodin, lorazepam, lipitor, effexor, zoloft, etc.
PleaseWhatever
Jul 20, 2012 at 8:15am
Cannabis laws are so boring and indiscriminately applied. Can we just legalize it already. Instead of spending public funds on something any sensible person knows is relatively harmless, we could be collecting taxes on it and funding improved infrastructure. You know, all that stuff that actually improves the lives of people. Arresting compassion club dudes is only improving the lives of douchey lawyers.
Noreen Evers, North Island Compassion Club
Jul 14, 2013 at 10:30pm
Cannabis WAS legal when NICC was busted - only the lawyer didn't say anything. What d'ya expect from a BC "Civil Liberties" lawyer anyway - put himself out of a job? PHS Order is pretty much the same as the judgment - CDSA 4.(1) and CDSA 5.(1) struck down effective 1 July 2009 [when INSITE's constitutional exemption expired] because Parliament didn't enact new legislation till late 2012. (The ORDER is signed by counsel for BC Civil Liberties, John Conroy, as well as private counsel for the Attorney General of Canada - who is NOT DOJ - AND BCCA rulings say the BC Attorney General DID intervene - so - all those subsequent busts - including Yacub and Myers - huh??? PLUS - NICC was incorporated BY THE GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA TO PROVIDE AND DISTRIBUTE CANNABIS - if it was/is 'illegal' - HOW could they do that??? A question not asked by the lawyer.