We previously reported on the Saskatchewan Compassion Club being raided by police late last year. Jamie Hagel was arrested last October while in the Saskatchewan-based dispensary during that particular police raid. Recently she plead not guilty to drug trafficking and possession of proceeds charges in court, following the raid last year.
She says that “I am not a drug trafficker, nor I am a threat to this community,” and she has some experience when it comes to the realm of addiction, having ten years experience and helping to set up a harm reduction program in the inner city of Saskatoon. She personally began to use cannabis only as a way to treat her Crohn’s disease.
Her health was dramatically declining as she took the normal medicines given to patients with Crohn’s, so she started to seek out alternatives after hesitating over the decision for a long time. After dropping a huge amount of weight, she finally decided to give cannabis as a try for treating her condition. “I didn’t care what people would think of me anymore. I just didn’t want the constant, chronic pain,” Hagel said.
Hagel has personally had members of that dispensary come and ask for assistance in buying their medical cannabis somewhere else, such as on the street. She and many others are hoping for a change in the system so that people can obtain medical cannabis easily and without being worried about the legality of obtaining it.