« CN BC: Marijuana Party’s Marc Emery Faces Extradition | Main | RESIN CHARGES THROWN OUT by Ted Smith »
GUILTY OF CHIPPING AWAY THE LAW by Ted Smith
By Hempology | November 6, 2005
After a three day trial, a jury found me guilty of trafficking THC (tetrahydrocannabiniol) because 1 had told the media and police exactly what 1 was doing Nov 15, 2000 when 1 was arrested at a pot cookie giveaway. One reason for the delay was because the original charges of trafficking cannabis (marijuana) were changed to trafficking THE the most active chemical in the plant. This meant that his maximum penalty changed from 5 years less 1 day to a potential life sentence. This change gave me the option of a jury, which I took. Another reason for the delay was to hear what the Supreme Court of Canada was going to say in regards to the Malmo-Levine/Clay/Caine case (see issue #1). In that case the argument was that the law caused more harm than good.
The harm principle argument failed because the court ruled that if an activity caused any harm, then the government had the authority to create laws and prohibitions to control any potential problems. We also tried to argue that my constitutional rights had been violated in several ways, in particular because my intentions were to benefit society by cooking low potency cookies which had a definite medical benefit but little potential for harm. Without the money needed to hire several expert witnesses to present my case, we were unable to convince the judge of our constitutional arguments. When instructing the jury about the law, though, Supreme Court Judge Wilson did make an error when he told them that THC was illegal without exception, and that if THC was found in the cookies, then I was guilty. In the testimony of the analyst from Health Canada and from our expert witness, Dr. David Pate, we showed that THC is legally available in quantities of less that 0.3%. His instructions gave the jury no choice but to convict me and there is a ground for an appeal because of his mistake. In sentencing the judge recognized that the only harm done by my cookie giveaway was done to the administration of justice. Instead of punishing me for my civil disobedience and flaunting of the law, the judge gave me the least punitive sentence available, which was one day in jail. That meant I spent 2 hours in the court cells.
Thanks to everyone who supported me in court. Celebrated for over 10 years as International Medical Marijuana Day this year on Nov 15 there will a 4:20 at the Ministry of Health on Blanschard followed by the 3rd annual silent an auction at 7:00 pm at the CBC storefront.
Topics: CD-7th, Sum/Fall 2005 | Comments Off
Comments are closed.