ACCUSED WELCOME CHANCE TO 'TELL THE TRUTH' ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS

Hopefulness and happiness were among the sentiments expressed by two
of the accused in the Holy Smoke drug trafficking case moments before
their trial began Monday.

With a handful of supporters milling outside the Nelson Courthouse,
Holy Smoke co-owners Paul DeFelice and Alan Middlemiss explained that
it was an opportunity to tell the truth about their business.

"For me I think it's a chance to get on the stand and to be able to
tell the truth about what we were up to and the whys and hows, the
issue around cannabis," said Middlemiss, who is charged with
trafficking cannabis and psilocybins. "A lot of times you go to go
and the lawyers say just zip your mouth and I'll do all the talking.
This is kind of the opposite."

Sauntering up to the courthouse with lawyer Donald Skogstad, DeFelice
said he was hopeful, excited, and a little nervous. He said he
planned to use the trial as a platform for their cause to legalize
marijuana.

"We're taking the high road. We're trying to prove that we were
preventing more harm than we were causing. We're not to play cagey or
pull technicalities," said DeFelice, who was arrested in July 2006
outside the store and is also facing a separate charge of possession
of cannabis.

"We're not even going to question police, we're just going to state
our case that we have our community's best interests at heart and I
think we can show where we eliminated a lot of street dealing and kids
coming into contact with hard drugs and dealers. It will be
interesting."

Noting that people in this community just "choose" to ignore the law
about consuming cannabis, Middlemiss explained that the defense team
would be talking about the special place that Nelson is.

"Nelson is a beautiful cultural place full of young people and that
smell that you smell on the streets is some of the world's finest
cannabis so what that says to me is that the world is saying we have
some of the best cannabis here in Nelson and that we have a culture
that goes along with it. It's something that's special to Nelson,"
said Middlemiss.

When asked if he was confident about the case, the lawyer for the duo
and co-accused Kelsey Stratas and Akka Annis, explained he was not
sure because using the defense of necessity is "uncharted territory."

Middlemiss, however, just sees it as an opportunity to go on record
and say what they want to say.

"People say, what's your chances of winning and I say I don't know it
at all, but I know we have 100 per cent chance of telling the truth.
That's what's making me the happiest," he said.