I do not smoke any weed at all anymore. I smoked recreationally when I was younger the way a lot of kids did. I inhaled a whole lot. It was great.

Because I don't smoke I don't know anything about the local 'scene.' I don't know where to score street weed and until I encountered this rally, I had no idea how people obtained medical pot in Guelph.

I do know that medical marijuana provides a mighty relief to anyone who is forced to cope with a debilitating disease. I am quite sure that as he lay dying of bone cancer, my father's last days on 'this mortal coil' would have passed less painfully with a bit of quality marijuana.

Rade Kovacevic

The images included here, as well as a couple of others on The Moment, were taken at a protest staged several weeks ago in the downtown square. The local constabulary have lately swooped down on the medical pot outlet at 62 Baker St. claiming the group who run this licensed outlet are dealing the demon weed (and some pot oil, and some hash) on the side.

Are the details of the bust true, or was this very public raid simply a decent photo op? $100,000 (wow!) street value in marijuana was displayed by a local gendarme for the Mercury. Police everywhere in Canada continue to raid and charge medical marijuana outlets, in spite of, or perhaps because of existing law. The whole scene looks like easy pickin's to me, far less work than busting a complex and potentially dangerous street drug operation

The 'I Wonder' Mantra
I wonder how much it cost Guelph taxpayers for the police to net this incredible haul and charge four people with various possession and trafficking violations.
I wonder how much more money it will cost the taxpayer to put the case/s through the courts.
I wonder about the cost of surveillance, information gathering, and SWAT-style planning for the raid.
I wonder how the police came to know, unequivocally, that pot was being dealt here at the medical marijuana store front.
I wonder if there are not larger completely illegal drug-related crimes that local narcs should be surveilling and busting.
I wonder whether the Mayor's office condoned the raid, or whether the mayor and the head of police services even talk to one another about such issues.

I say to all anti-pot law enforcement officers and administrators, wait until you are deathy ill or quite sick in some other way, i.e. MS, glaucoma, anxiety- and stress-based emotional illness, and see whether your personal attitude towards weed changes. It certainly has for one retired corrections officer who spoke at the rally.

Alison Myrden

If government would would get off their asses and put through legitimate laws legalising recreational use of marijuana the raids would stop. The government also needs to make medical marijuana law clearer and stronger even if no law is written right away regarding recreational use.


Our police services should not have to be wasting time on penny-ante stuff like this.

New law would free up precious tax dollars for the city to be utilised where they are needed;. Law enforcement would have extra money in their budget every year to pursue legitimate crime.

Incidents like this police action, and the Hanlon Business Park fiasco last summer, strike me as attempts by a rotting power structure to shore up the stanchions, to maintain order in the 21st-century using 19th-century methods and attitudes.