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Medical Cannabis Buyers’ Club Celebrates 8 Years
By Ted | January 29, 2004
By Ted Smith
President,
International Hempology 101 Society
Victoria, B.C.: This past weekend marked the 8th anniversary of the
Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs of Canada, the oldest public medical buyers’ club in the
country.
The club actually started from a van, when founder Leon “Ted” Smith created a pamphlet
with a pager number to provide a delivery service for people with incurable, physical
medical problems. While working as an educator with the International Hempology 101
Society, he quickly learned enough about the medical benefits of cannabis to realize that
waiting for the law to change meant that many sick people would suffer and die without
this herb. A few months after starting the club in January 1996, an apartment was found
to work from, which was fine until March 21st, 2001, when the police told Ted to get a
storefront for the group. Since then the Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs of Canada has been open
every single day, even through 5 police raids which occured on January 3rd, March 21st,
April 22nd, and June 21st, 2002, and February 19th, 2003. All of these raids were the
result of questionable behaviour of club memebers or suspected drug dealers downtown
claiming the Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs is the source of their cannabis in the hope that the
store will get shut down, forcing sick and vulnerable people back to the streets to
buy their medicine. With over 1,200 active members, the Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs of
Canada is a strong network of dedicated individuals with a strong core collective to
maintain it’s functions despite a debt of over $30,000.
Focus now turns to the constitutional challenge which was granted to Ted over 3 years ago
when he was charged with trafficking for sharing joints at the University of Victoria
and for trying to give away cannabis cookies on International Medical Marijuana Day on
November 15th, 2000. He was also arrested in the first 2 police raids, leaving him with
a total now of 6 trafficking-related charges. The constitutional arguments lawyer
Bob Moore-Stewart includes Sections 1, 2, 7, 9, 11, and 15 of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and are based primarily upon the fact
that the prohibition of cannabis grants the state sweeping powers which are irrational
and arbitrary, putting the legal system into disrepute because the law acts contrary
to public health and safety, especially for seriously ill citizens.
Ted Smith will be in court on February 12th at 2pm to begin his constitutional challenge
after waiting over 3 years for the Supreme Court of Canada to make a decision on the
Clay/Caine/Malmo-Levine case which finally came down on December 23rd, 2003. For more
details about the current state of Ted’s constitutional challenge, see www.hempology.com.
While the fate of the Cannabis Buyers’ Club is not necessarily at stake with these
trials, certainly members and supporters are very hopeful the hearings work in
Ted’s favour. Last year an effort to help raise money for lawyer Bob Moore-Stewart
was started which has brought almost $6,000 so far. For $25, the International
Hempology 101 Society will give you a CANNABOND which you can cash in for 7 grams of
quality herb 3 months after the laws prohibiting the sale of cannabis are permanently
struck down in Canada.
The members and volunteers of the Cannabis Buyers’ Clubs of Canada would like to thank
everyone for their support over the past 8 years.
For more information, contact:
- Ted Smith – (250) 381-3262
- Tyler MacDonald – tyler@hempology.com
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