* This message forwarded from private area of Rich Woods
  * Original message dated 06 Dec 96  15:09:21, from Cclist@hempbc.com
 
 Apparently-to: rich.woods@245.genesplicer.org
From: cclist@hempbc.com
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 15:09:21 -0800
Apparently-To: 
Apparently-To: 
On Wednesday December 4 the Vancouver Harm Reduction Club was busted. We
still don't have all the details, so what follows is pretty much all we
know so far. I'll follow this with another post which will have a recent
Globe & Mail story about the Club.
I hope list members can contact the Globe and Mail and Vancouver papers
with letters of support for the Harm Reduction Club. As usual, don't forget
to include your name, mailing address and daytime phone number. Please cc
me a copy of any letters you send.
Globe & Mail:       letters@globeandmail.ca
Vancouver Province: provedpg@ppress.wimsey.com
Vancouver Sun:      sunletters@ppress.wimsey.com
Vancouver Echo:     rshore@vanecho.com
North Shore News:   editor@nsnews.com
Westender:          westender@jumppoint.com
Harm Comes to the Harm Reduction Club
The Vancouver Police have decided to spread the badwill and raid the Harm
Reduction Club (HRC), the marijuana buyer's club run in Vancouver by David
Malmo-Levine. Guns drawn, the police searched the club's "smoke easy"
headquarters and made several arrests.
Malmo-Levine was at the Cannabis Canada office at the time, and was
requested to turn himself in by police under threat that the office of the
magazine would be raided as well. Malmo-Levine called the media and turned
himself in a 5pm, with the presence of CBC and UTV cameras and other
reporters. Malmo-Levine and several other club organizers were
fingerprinted and spent the night in prison.
At the same time as the police were raiding the club, 3 young teenagers
armed with handguns robbed a jewelry store in Vancouver. Police were not
present.
By raiding the club, Vancouver police have shown their priorities in
fighting crime; non-violent businesspersons are more of a threat to society
than armed theives. This is a backward policy, and the noble Vancouver
Police Department should be ashamed of their behavior.
>From their website, their self-proclaimed function:
''The Vancouver Police Department builds bridges and partnerships with each
community, that together we may improve the quality of life and sense of
safety for us all, ensuring peace and security through a sensitive, caring
and creative police service.''
The department has just burned their bridge with Vancouver's cannabis
community, while neglecting to ensure the safety of the rest of the city.
More details should be forthcoming. The HRC is holding a meeting to decide
the immediate future of the service.
Email the Vancouver Police Department at vpd@wimsey.com, phone
(604)665-3535, or fax (604)257-3716. Messages and memberships for the Harm
Reduction Club should go to (604)253-6357. You can email David Malmo-Levine
at growpotkin@hempbc.com, but expect a delay to your email response.
--
Dana Larsen (muggles@hempbc.com)
Editor, Cannabis Canada, "Canada's National Magazine of Marijuana & Hemp"
Subscribe to Cannabis Canada! Call 1-800-330-HEMP for info.
Write to: Suite 504, 21 Water St., Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6B 1A1
Visit Cannabis Canada online at http://www.hempbc.com
For free email news and updates about cannabis and drug issues,
send an email with a subject of "subscribe" to cclist@hempbc.com
--- GIGO+ sn 132 at genesplicer vsn 0.99 pl3
--- DLG Pro v1.16g1/PDQMail v2.60
(1:209/245)
---------------