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Guru of ganja marks 10 years of pot advocacy
By Hempology | February 10, 2006
Since he began supplying chronically ill people in Victoria with marijuana out of a van 10 years ago, Leon “Ted” Smith has seen some major changes in his role.
Not the least of those has been his legal banishment from having anything to do with the operation of the Cannabis Buyers’ Club he founded in 1996.
By Don Descoteau
Victoria News
Feb 10 2006
Despite being forced by the courts to watch the fruits of his labours from arm’s length, Smith said this week he is extremely pleased with how far the club has come in achieving its mandate.
“It’s extremely important for me to have this club perceived as legal, and being vindicated in court is a necessary step in that,” he said.
In all, Smith, whose aim is to see marijuana legalized, has faced 11 charges related to marijuana and its distribution. Some stemmed from raids on the club storefront, while others came from such activities as passing out pot cookies on International Medical Marijuana Day and sharing joints at a weekly Hempology 101 meeting at UVic.
Most of those charges were dismissed, largely due to constitutional questions and the application of existing laws in situations involving medical marijuana.
“Going through all the trials, being acquitted for all the club trials – that’s 11 charges done and gone and the club is free and clear,” Smith said. “It gives me a warm feeling inside every time I think of it. I’m really proud of it.”
Not everyone has seen him as a saviour in that time.
After Smith was acquitted on a handful of charges in 2004, Victoria police Insp. Grant Smith stated “my personal opinion is that Ted Smith definitely has an agenda to get marijuana legalized in Canada.” While he stopped short of questioning Smith’s integrity, the inspector said “there definitely is an ulterior motive.”
After five years of operating the club and having the occasional run-in with the law, Smith and his compatriots were ordered by police to get a storefront. While in some ways that legitimized the club’s activities, there were the inevitable members who flauted the rules and re-sold pot they bought from the club.
These days the Buyers’ Club is limping along, barely making enough to pay the bills – Smith said it is $40,000 in debt. But its “sister” organization, Hempology 101, continues to thrive. There are more than 250 members of the marijuana educational organization at the University of Victoria alone, making it one of the largest clubs on campus. As well, Smith’s Wednesday night presentations in the foyer of Ministry of Health building on Blanshard Street have been attracting upwards of three dozen participants.
Due to popular demand, Smith plans to teach a weekly course at UVic starting in September. The content, he said, will range from hemp to the history of cannabis, its uses, the history of prohibition, medical uses and other topics.
“I would like to get some guest speakers, maybe some sociology profs, and talk about the current legal status of cannabis,” he said.
Aware that upwards of 100 people a week could attend the classes and be looking to learn, Smith said he’ll need to be on his best behaviour.
“It’s quite different than downtown, where we kind of goof around. When you stand up in front of 100 students you better damn well know what you’re doing.”
With a little more time on his hands lately, he’s in the middle of writing a textbook on marijuana, hemp and its uses, with the goal of finding a distributor locally and elsewhere. That may or may not provide him with financial self-sufficiency, but regardless, he’s feeling good about where he’s at.
“The level of life I live is so much greater,” Smith said. “When you work with people who are sick and dying like I do, just being able to walk around is amazing.”
dond@vinewsgroup.com
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