HOLY SMOKE BACK IN COURT

MARIJUANA: Accused One Step Closer to Having Case Heard and Hope It
Will Be Precedent Setting

Owners and associates of the Holy Smoke Culture Shop will likely be
tried together on various charges of possession and trafficking of
marijuana, psilocybin, and hashish.

Donald Skogstad, the lawyer for the four men involved - Holy Smoke
co-owners Paul De Felice and Alan Middlemiss and associates Kelsey
Stratas and Akka Annis - plans to argue the defense of necessity in
what could be a precedent setting case for drug laws in Canada.

"My clients want to have their trial together. They want a single
trial, not four separate trials. The crown seems receptive to that
idea and it's technically possible," said Skogstad outside the
courtroom Tuesday following a case conference.

De Felice, Middlemiss, Stratas, and Annis were charged in the latter
half of 2006 following a Nelson City Police drug investigation
"Operation Vista" that looked into the sale of illicit drugs in
licensed premises, private residences, street operations, and retail
stores within city limits.

De Felice was arrested outside Holy Smoke July 15 and charged with
possession of marijuana and hashish. Police then raided the store
and allegedly recovered one pound of marijuana, a small amount of
hashish, financial records, and $8,000 cash. In addition to the
possession charges, De Felice is also charged with two counts of
trafficking in marijuana. Middlemiss turned himself in August
16. He is charged with one count of trafficking in marijuana and one
count of trafficking in psilocybin. Unlike his co-defendants, one of
Middlemiss' charges entitles him to a trial by jury. Charges were
brought against Stratas and Annis along with six other individuals in
November as part of the drug probe.

Skogstad told the Daily News December 6, the defense would argue that
the alleged trafficking was "the lesser of two evils." It essentially
argues that while the defendants may have committed the act, the
alternative would have been much worse.

"We're going to save the court a whole pile of money by not having
the four to six police officers for four separate trials or even
flown in at all," said Middlemiss. "This argument of necessity, what
it does is it is a deal that we've made so that we don't dispute
constitutional arguments, we don't dispute the warrant."

He said that Holy Smoke was actually keeping people "coming to Nelson
and wanting to smoke some of the local herb" safe from "unscrupulous dealers."

When told of the defense's intentions, Judge Ron Fabbro asked: "Do I
understand that they'd be putting all their eggs in none basket?"

Asked by Fabbro what he meant by necessity, Skogstad explained, among
other things, that the alleged trafficking was a "public health and
organized crime" issue. Middlemiss indicated that people complained
to Holy Smoke that they had been ripped off by street dealers or that
products bought on the street were mixed with petrochemicals and/or fertilizer.

"So the only way that we could have any control over that situation
from these people coming to us was to be involved in the industry and
so we're basically going to not lie in any way and not hide behind
anything and it's actually very liberating to be able to just come
out for the truth...," said Middlemiss. "We're completely willing to
take any punishment that's meted out to us and we'll continue to do
our work even if it is behind prison bars as far as that goes. I
believe that the case could have wide impact on the Canadian cannabis
law reform movement."

The Daily News contacted prosecutor Rob Brown for a comment but was
told that he was not available and that he does not give comments to the media.

Though at different stages, the cases involving the four men are
slated to resume March 7.

Skogstad believes the case will take a week to argue in court.

"The court is very careful abut the use of court time so they want to
know exactly what we're going to do for that week. We're not able to
answer those questions today," he said, adding that he would have the
information required by March, at which point the length of the trial
will be known.

The trial date would be set a few weeks later but Skogstad expects it
to take place in the second half of the year. He added that one
trial would save his clients and taxpayers money.

"My clients as well, they're fundraising to raise enough to have one
one-week trial. They could never afford four [trials]."