North Island Compassion Club operator's lawyer seeks to have marijuana charge thrown out

by Matthew Burrows on Jul 19, 2012 at 1:24 pm
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The RCMP raided a compassion club in Courtenay and the Crown followed up by laying a criminal information against the operator.
Photo from Shutterstock

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 (3) Add New Comment
jonny .
Jul 19, 2012 at 2:12 pm
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!
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ernie yacub
Jul 19, 2012 at 7:25 pm
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.
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PleaseWhatever
Jul 20, 2012 at 8:15 am
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.
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