Stephen Vance, Staff
After nearly two decades of legalized use for medical purposes, Canada officially legalized recreational use and possession of cannabis last month, becoming just the second country in the world to fully legalize the plant, but that doesn’t mean legal troubles for all are a thing of the past, as Meaford resident Gary Pallister knows all too well.
Pallister, 62, returns to court this week in an ongoing legal battle stemming from a traffic stop turned drug bust that took place in Collingwood on February 4 of this year.
At about 11:30 a.m. on February 4, Collingwood OPP stopped Pallister for speeding on Highway 26. During the traffic stop, the officer noticed a number of cannabis plants in the back seat of Pallister’s car. After a search of the vehicle, officers discovered 314 unrooted clones, along with 16 two-foot potted plants, all of which Pallister says were destined for patients. The OPP also found a quantity of rosin cannabis extract in Pallister’s vehicle. As a result, he was charged with possession of cannabis (more than 30 grams), possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, and producing a controlled substance.
Initially Pallister hired a lawyer to represent him in court, but after having spent $5,000 his funds were depleted, and he has chosen to move forward by representing himself beginning with a November 13 court date in Collingwood.
Pallister told The Independent that the Crown is seeking a four year prison term, but he is determined to win his case.
“The officer didn’t (initially) search my car. He asked me what was in the car, and I told him,” Pallister explained. “I told him I was a gatherer, and that I was taking all this material to a workshop we had coming up on the Saturday.”
Pallister said that the 314 unrooted clones, which could have fit into a couple of shoe boxes, were intended to be given away for free to attendees of the workshop, which had been drawing up to 100 people per session, so that attendees could be ready to grow their own plants at home, under Canada’s then upcoming legalization, allowing Canadians to grow four plants for personal use.
“I was anticipating on making a lot of people very happy because they were all to have been given away free,” said Pallister. “I was trying to get everybody ready for the summer.”
Pallister has been fighting the charges since his first court date in March, and now that he is representing himself, he’s been busy preparing for upcoming court dates.
“I hired my lawyer from Collingwood, and when we reached $5,000, I asked him how much he thought it was going to cost me, and he couldn’t give me an answer, and I was quite perturbed,” Pallister explained. “So I said okay, I have no more money, I have to self-defend.”
At the core of Pallister’s defence is that people’s lives are more important than what he says are unjust laws.
“They’re still trying to demonize cannabis, and if everybody would open their eyes and realize what Big Brother’s trying to do; they’re still trying to control us with the fear-mongering,” Pallister suggested. “Well, the fear-mongering is over with me, now I’m fear-mongering back. Hey, we’re dealing with people that are 60 to 90 years old, I’m not playing in the street.”
Pallister says that not only have Canada’s previous cannabis laws been unjust, they violated Canadians’ rights. But Pallister goes one step further, pointing to the Bible, which in the book of Genesis says that God gave all of the plants and seeds for humans to use.
Pallister acknowledges that by having the unrooted clones and other items in his vehicle, he was violating the law as it stood at the time of his arrest, and even post-legalization, he would still have been in contravention of the law.
“Lives over laws!” Pallister responded when asked about this. “That’s how I respond to that.”
He became emotional when discussing some of the patients that he has helped, including children with seizures and adults with cancer.
While Pallister is fighting against what he considers to be unjust laws, he is frustrated seeing former police officers and politicians, who for decades fought against cannabis use, and who created and enforced laws that put cannabis users in prison, now jumping into the newly legalized cannabis market.
“Let’s make it perfectly clear. The fat white cats have done exactly what the skinny white kid from Quebec (Prime Minister Trudeau) did, right in front of us, they’ve bamboozled us. They’ve made our cannabis illegal in order to monopolize theirs. They can all go to Hell. I will fight every day against them, and their monopolization of cannabis,” said Pallister. “This should have been decriminalized and made accessible to everybody. This is nothing but status-quo with the good ole boys’ club controlling everything we do.”
Pallister also sees irony in the fact that while cannabis is used by millions as a medicinal herb that has no recorded incidents of overdose or death, an opioid epidemic has been sweeping the nation killing thousands. The opioid epidemic has its foundations in doctor-prescribed painkillers.
“The doctors are the biggest drug pushers that we have,” Pallister said. “And the government allows it to happen because of the voluminous amounts of money it generates. The doctors are being paid off left and right by the pharmaceutical industry – open your eyes, people, are you all sheeple? Do you all really believe what the government is saying is true? They’re the biggest bunch of God-damned liars that ever went on. All they’re interested in is their own ends, and Justin Trudeau is a prime example.”
Pallister says that with his fight continuing this week, he is optimistic that he will succeed and will win his case, and he is prepared to take it as far as is necessary. So while cannabis is now a legal substance once again in Canada, the fight against what many consider to be unjust laws continues.
