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THC in cookies was minimal, court told
By Hempology | October 13, 2005
Analysis performed on cookies seized from marijuana activist Ted Smith indicates they contained too little active ingredients to have any effect, court heard Wednesday.
BY RICHARD WATTS Times Colonist staff
Basically my opinion is you probably couldnt get an effect, based on the deductions I have made, testified David Pate, a pharmaceutical chemist with a background in plant biology specializing in cannabis and its contained substances.
The pony-tailed and long-bearded Pate was testifying as a witness for the defence in the B.C. Supreme Court trial of Leon (Ted) Smith, 36.
Smith is facing a charge of possession of tetrahydrocannabinol (the substance commonly known as THC) for the purpose of trafficking. Earlier testimony indicated police arrested Smith on Nov. 15, 2002 and seized 383 cookies, weighing an estimated 40 to 50 pounds.
Officers were moving in after reading an article in a Victoria weekly newspaper which said he was planning to give away marijuana cookies at a demonstration that day. According to the author of the article, Smith was a committed member of a Victoria compassion club.
According to one police witness, Smith, when asked after he was arrested, said he used about two ounces to make the cookies.
Analysis from Health Canada was also entered as evidence to show the cookies contained THC.
But Health Canada analyst Brian Taylor said Wednesday his test results were not based on an analysis of the cookies. Instead, he analysed an oil stain on the paper bag containing the cookies, assuming it was a good indication of what was in the cookies.
But Pate took issue with that assumption saying any oil in the cookie would have leached out the THC artificially concentrating it.
Pate deduced based on the lab tests Taylor used to analyse the stain that the concentrations eventually discovered were very low, anyway.
Such low concentrations mean the THC could have come from sources other than marijuana.
THC can be found in a number of legal hemp products, such as hemp grown for fibre, seeds sold as food, or oil used in cooking, he added.
It could be some form of THC derived from any number of sources, said Pate.
It could be anything from marijuana to oil you bought at the grocery store, hemp oil, he said.
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