FELGER IN CUSTODY AFTER POLICE RAID FINDS POT An Abbotsford man who uses marijuana to ease the overpowering nausea he gets from his medications is furious his government-sanctioned source was dismantled in a raid. Brian Carlisle, a criminology student at the University College of the Fraser Valley, where he takes a criminal law course from Abbotsford police chief Ian Mackenzie, said he will petition the court to get his growing equipment returned. "How did [the police] get permission to raid a garden licence? The address was given to Health Canada. The police can check on that," he said. Since last fall, Carlisle has held a permit to grow marijuana at the Bradner road property of marijuana activist Tim Felger. Last Thursday, Felger and another man were arrested at about 9:30 a.m. as they were leaving the property to deliver the pot to Carlisle. He said he had asked them to deliver the medicinal pot to him as his car couldn't make it through the snow. Carlisle says the marijuana, which he inhales as a vapour, controls his nausea and allows him to function normally. He said he now has no source of medication and doesn't want to go to street dealers. Carlisle grew his own marijuana plants until he was beaten and shocked with a taser by masked attackers in his Chilliwack home last September. No arrests were made in that incident. He said he's too afraid to grow the marijuana himself. "I have no other avenue. I've tried the government's marijuana, I've tried the pills, and it doesn't work. Where am I supposed to get my medicine?" he said. During the raid, the Abbotsford police drug squad seized 2,090 plants, along with an undetermined amount of growing equipment. After Carlisle spent the day of the raid convincing the Crown prosecutors' office to let him get his medical pot, Abbotsford police officers escorted him to Felger's property, he said. There he was allowed to take 25 plants out of their containers, he said. Carlisle said the scene reminded him of his attack. "[The police] were wearing masks on their face and those lights on their heads - they looked just like the guys who home invaded me," said Carlisle. Felger, a Marijuana Party candidate in the last federal election, remains in custody and will appear in Abbotsford provincial court again for a show cause hearing on Jan. 24. Published in the Abbotsford Times on Friday, January 14, 2005