Montreal police raided the city’s so-called Compassion Club, a storefront selling marijuana for medical use, on Thursday 10 February 2000.[1][2] Officers arrested two employees and seized the names of 27 doctors who had recommended cannabis to their ailing patients.[1] Police said they had no choice because compassion clubs remained illegal even though the federal government could permit medical cultivation and use; commander Andre Lapointe said police felt pain for the suffering but had to apply the law until legislators changed it.[1]
Marc St-Maurice and Alexandre Neron appeared in court the next day charged with possessing 66 grams of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, enough for 150 to 300 cigarettes.[1] Police confiscated evidence from physicians who had suggested marijuana to 33 patients and forwarded it to Crown prosecutors, who were to decide whether doctors could face charges of counselling a criminal offence.[1] The patients included people with AIDS and breast cancer as well as people with migraines and back pain, and only one club member held a federal medical exemption.[1] Police said they had built their case under surveillance ever since the club opened, helped by its location across the street from a police station.[1]
Ten agents with a dog burst into the club at 950 rue Rachel Est, handcuffed the volunteers and jailed them on possession and trafficking charges.[2] They seized medicine, demonstration vaporizers, water pipes, rolling papers, matches and patients’ files, and patients later received letters saying the club was illegal and that visiting it risked prison.[2] The club, which had opened in October 1999, closed for one month, forcing patients onto the street supply.[2]
