MAN SPARED JAIL FOR PAIN RELIEF GROW OPS

A former Calgary man has been handed a conditional jail sentence
after police raided his home on two separate occasions five years ago
and found 577 marijuana plants that police estimated as being worth
up to $800,000 on the street.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Beth Hughes said she did not send Mark
James Maki, 43, to jail because of the unique circumstances of the
case. Instead, she placed him under house arrest for the first year
of a sentence of two years less a day and prohibited him from
possessing any illicit drugs.

Hughes said the grow operations discovered in October 2001 and
February 2002 in Maki's home on Madigan Drive N.E. were non-profit
and to be used for a Compassion Club to relieve pain for people with
serious illnesses such as multiple sclerosis.

She also took into account that Maki, who now lives in Coquitlam,
B.C., was being sentenced five years after the bust and he had taken
great steps to rehabilitate himself.

Crown prosecutor Susan Kennedy had sought incarceration, particularly
because of the large volume of marijuana found. She also noted a
shotgun was seized, an item often used to protect grow ops.