CONVICTION PUTS POT CHURCH OUT OF BUSINESS

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

Michael Baldasaro was sentenced to two years in jail while Walter
Tucker will spend one year behind bars in connection with selling
marijuana at the Church of the Universe.

In handing down his ruling, 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, police officers purchased marijuana from the church in an
undercover operation. 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
the drug law.