Vancouver Island resident Jenelle Uhler had her first — and hopefully last — taste of prison last week.
She’s not too happy about it.
Uhler was one of several otherwise law-abiding Canadian citizens who were swept in a recent crackdown by North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP that saw three medical marijuana dispensaries raided.
The one she was busted at, Leaf Compassion, re-opened again on Sunday, and the young mother of two is abiding by her release conditions by not entering the premises.
Instead, she is protesting outside to highlight the absurdity of the situation.
Uhler also turned to Facebook to vent after her release in a widely shared post.
Here’s what happened in her own words:
“I have thought all night about making a public post regarding everything that happened yesterday and well into this morning, and have come to the conclusion that I would like to let people know what happened. Yesterday at approximately 10:35am the dispensary that I work at got raided, as well as others in the district of North Cowichan.
This consisted of arrests of all people working, myself included, as well as some of my closest friends, and the confiscation of all products on the premises. This led to a 14-hour detainment in the Duncan RCMP detachment, where we sat in a freezing cold cell, with two cameras pointed directly at the one shared toilet, with no option to let our families know where we were.
Instead we were told “it’s all over Facebook and the news, your husbands know where you are, I’m sure.” I am now facing charges, and have a list of compliances I must meet, including the promise to appear in court, a no contact order with my friends/co-workers, and in my opinion, second family. As well as, I am not allowed to be on the premises of Leaf Compassion Chemainus, and an order prohibiting the use of cannabis products.
Ironically, I attended a Chemainus public and city council meeting the Monday before, where I listened to people in the community talk about all of the issues they are facing with robberies at an all time high. One business owner’s story was hard to even believe, when he said he called the RCMP after two people stole a bunch of his things from his store, and after calling police and leaving a message, he didn’t even get a response for 2 FULL DAYS! People are having their houses broken in to and police are taking over two hours to attend the scene.
This is in no way meant to be disrespectful to the RCMP. I have always had a strong belief that our police officers have the hardest job in the world, as well as an incredibly thankless one, and I respect their courage immensely.
All this being said, the faith I have in our justice system, and government is at an all time low. Why in God’s name are we allowing our tax dollars to go towards this. There is real crime happening.
Cannabis is a plant. It has been used for its healing properties ever since we can begin to date the existence of man. 70% of the people that came into our dispensary were seniors. I have had every story imaginable told to me from the people who have come to me for help.
I have literally watched skin cancer disappear from a woman’s face after applying the cannabis oils topically, without the high associated with smoking the flower. I have had grown men cry to me, thanking me for “giving them their mom back” after she had such bad tremors and nervous twitches, associated with dementia. I have had the sweetest old couple who both suffered from such bad chronic pain, with no relief from any doctors prescriptions, come to me and say they were ready to commit suicide together because they couldn’t handle the pain anymore. This was their last hope. And guess what? It worked. They came back in, a couple weeks later, crying with tears while thanking me from the bottom of their heart. My own husband was getting booked in for knee replacement surgery and instead used a tincture, with not even enough thc to get a high, and he is pain free, with no surgery needed.
Whether people use cannabis for pain, depression, insomnia, anxiety, cancer, MS, etc. Why should anyone have the right to tell you not to use a natural medicine to help yourself? Why in God’s name are we still fighting, in 2017, for the right to grow a certain plant that is used for the treatment of so many different ailments? Why am I treated and possibly charged like a criminal for this plant? Because let me tell you, I sure don’t feel like a criminal. I feel like a fucking rock star. And that’s what I am. I’m an amazing mother of two beautiful, intelligent, kind children. I come home every night and share a pot of tea with my husband, as we maintain our miniature farm. I myself am a kind, loving, smart, motivated woman who knows what is right and what is wrong and so far, have a clean criminal record. All of you other rock stars out there, keep up the fight! Our freedom is on the line. This movement is too important to give up. I am in no way saying I am taking my conditions lightly, because I am not. But I believe in this, like I believed in our community support for Shawnigan Lake. And this will be okay.
It will be okay because people are brave enough to stand up to unjust laws.
And that is exactly what this is, unjust.