'TECHNICAL BREECH' OF POT LAW NOT WORTH PROSECUTING: CROWN

Meaford Man Got Licence To Grow, Use Marijuana A Month After Being Busted

Federal Crown attorney Clayton Conlan withdrew all drug
charges Tuesday against a Meaford man who says he uses marijuana
medicinally and against the man's wife because prosecuting the
charges "would not be in the public interest."

James Kerr, 36, and Celena Negovetich, 30, agreed to forfeit the
$6,800 worth of marijuana police seized Jan. 4 in their Meaford home,
but they are getting back most of the $1,700 worth equipment to grow more pot.

Tuesday had been set aside for their trial and the couple had said
they would represent themselves. But they came to court having
already worked out terms of a resolution with the Crown, so their
appearance in the Ontario Court of Justice to officially withdraw the
charges was brief.

Conlan said in an interview he withdrew the charges of possession of
marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and production of marijuana
against both Kerr and Negovetich after consulting with his superior
at the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

Kerr had applied for licences to grow and use marijuana long before
he was charged and he received both licences the month after charges
were laid, Conlan said.

It was still a "technical breach" of the law, but not one that either
Conlan or his boss thought was worth prosecuting.

"I just don't think that it was worthwhile, quite frankly,
prosecuting somebody who has legitimate, serious medical problems and
who now has a valid licence."

Kerr was diagnosed in September 2005 with multiple sclerosis, a
disease of the central nervous system with no cure. It causes attacks
of prolonged muscle spasms and headaches which he says are relieved
with marijuana. He is on a disability pension because of his illness.

Conlan also praised the police work leading to the charges and thinks
there was a reasonable prospect both Kerr and Negovetich would have
been convicted.

Kerr's reaction was subdued when reached at home after court.

In May, after rejecting an earlier Crown proposal, Kerr said he
intended to fight the charges by arguing Canada's marijuana
possession law is unconstitutional.

He said a stay of the charges proposed earlier by the Crown
threatened to impede his wife's ability to travel to the United
States if required for employment purposes, something Conlan disputes.

Negovetich is a retail store manager.

"She could lose her job, so that was the main reason I decided to
accept this," Kerr said of the Crown's decision to withdraw all charges.

A stay also would have allowed prosecutors to proceed with the
charges again within one year.

Kerr added the resolution relieves their stress, which was taking a
toll on his health, and lets him continue to grow marijuana that is
of superior quality and more effective than government-grown
medicinal marijuana.

Kerr and Negovetich had been consulting Edwin Pearson, a pot activist
who has written a book called "Never Plead Guilty," and Doug
Hutchinson, a philosophy professor who calls himself a pothead. His
website, www.ThePotLawHasFallen.ca, offers a free "defence kit" to
fight simple possession charges.

Both Pearson's and Hutchinson's arguments stem from whether the
government's medical marijuana access regulations are a
constitutionally acceptable medical exemption, in accordance with a
2001 court of appeal ruling.

Conlan said the pot law has not fallen, though there have been a
couple of provincial court decisions in Ontario striking down the
simple possession of marijuana charge, Section 4 of the Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act.

"But those decisions, first of all, are under appeal. Secondly, there
are decisions which go the other way, which say no, it is still a
valid offence. There is nothing constitutionally wrong with the
CDSA," Conlan said.