CHURCH OF POT LANDS PAIR IN SLAMMER

HAMILTON - Two men who operated a church where marijuana was sold as a
sacrament were sentenced to prison Friday.

Michael Baldasaro got two years while Walter Tucker will spend one
year behind bars for selling marijuana at the Church of the Universe.

The judge called the operation "a marijuana convenience store that
operates for profit like a Prohibition-era speakeasy, but disguised as
a church."

In 2004, undercover police officers bought marijuana from the church.

Baldasaro and Tucker maintain that God tells them to smoke marijuana
and pass joints to their Church of the Universe parishioners.

The case of the two men, who also lived in the church, made history in
Hamilton because it's the first time a residence has been seized under
Canada's federal drug law.