Global Ganja Report

Police launched a major anti-cannabis operation in Quebec June 3, arresting 35 in raids on four "compassion centers" in Montreal and one in Quebec City. A police spokesman said no organized crime gangs were linked to the centers—but that doesn’t make it OK.

"People were selling drugs," said Cmdr. Antonio Iannantuoni of the Montral police. "These operations weren’t tailored to sick people... Selling drugs remains illegal."

"There were days when we observed more than 200 people going in and out" of the Culture 420 Compassion Club in Lachine, Iannantuoni said.

Former Marijuana Party leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice was among those arrested. "Is this some kind of federal government effort?" he asked after his bust in an interview with a local radio network. "I don’t know. I do know they’re conducting raids in Quebec City and Montreal simultaneously. There’s obviously some co-ordination going on between the police forces."  (Canadian Press, Montreal Gazette, June 4; Canadian Press, June 3)

Canadian federal government regulations on the possession and production of medical marijuana for personal use took effect in July 2001, one year after an Ontario Court of Appeals ruling gave Ottawa a one-year deadline to establish such guidelines before federal drug laws in Ontario would be considered void. (Canada Online)

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