POT ADVOCATE MUST GET DRUG IN JAIL

A judge says he had no choice but to send medicinal marijuana
crusader Grant Krieger to jail for drug trafficking, but he wants
assurances corrections authorities will uphold Krieger's
constitutional exemption to have the drug behind bars to alleviate
pain for his multiple sclerosis.

Provincial court Judge William Pepler, in an unprecedented ruling,
postponed Krieger's four-month incarceration until June 18 or until
he receives an answer from corrections officials that they will make
provisions to honour another judge's order of seven years ago to
allow him access to marijuana.

"We'll come back and speak to it on June 18, only if the authorities
have not made a provision for Mr. Krieger to receive marijuana in
custody," said Pepler.

"We've given them plenty of time to deal with this."

Should corrections decide to take action sooner than the next court
date, said the judge, Krieger has 48 hours to turn himself in and
begin serving the sentence.

"I'm not planning to go to jail, because they have taken away my
rights to be able to walk," said Krieger, noting he was previously
incarcerated in 1999 and 2001 on similar drug charges and his health
deteriorated so badly he was confined to a wheelchair.

"I'll go to jail, all right, but I'll be filing paperwork for unusual
punishment."

Pepler convicted Krieger on two counts of drug trafficking after
police seized two packages containing 801 grams of marijuana sent
through his Grant Krieger Compassion Club to people in Manitoba for
distribution to people with similar afflictions.

Crown prosecutor Scott Couper said the government has made marijuana
available through the Medicinal Marijuana Access Regime.

He said there was a concern that by Krieger distributing the drug to
400 members of his compassion club, there were no medical or other
controls over who received it, if they truly needed it and if any of
the drug got into criminal hands.