WAS IT GOOD JUDGMENT OR REEFER BADNESS?

Lifts Parole Suspension Despite Marijuana Use By Offender

Many B.C. citizens would side with Matsqui inmate Brian Riches in his
pitch to the parole board this week.

The 33-year-old twice-convicted violent offender was anxious to win
back his freedom after authorities returned him to prison for
breaking a condition of his release: He had smoked weed.

Reefer badness, critics might say.

But at least half the province's residents have admitted to trying
marijuana and more than 58 per cent believe it should be legal. So
what's the big deal, Riches argued.

Especially since he had been doing well while free. He'd nailed down
full-time work, regularly attended a community drug program and was
working out anger issues with a counsellor.

"My views on marijuana differ from others," he boldly informed two
savvy NPB members who had to decide whether his penchant for pot
merited more time in the joint.

The board noted that hard-drug use had played a role in Riches'
crippling attacks on his victims and that he had committed his most
violent crimes while on parole.

But Riches said marijuana wasn't like those other drugs; it helped
chill him out.

"I see it as harm reduction," he replied when asked if his soft drug
use put the public at risk -- the test to establish if he was to be retained.

Riches said getting high cut the craving for more harmful,
unpredictable drugs and, even better, it helped vanquish the anxiety
and depression that plagued him daily.

He was candid, too, when asked if he planned to go without pot until
his supervised release ended in summer, 2008: "I can guarantee you I
won't reoffend, but I can't guarantee I won't smoke marijuana."

After weighing the pros and cons, parole board members Terry Little
and Gus Richardson voted to lift Riches' parole suspension and allow
him to return to the Victoria half-way house, noting that his good
behaviour since last fall's release from federal prison was encouraging.

But victims' advocate Steve Sullivan wasn't so optimistic. The
director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Victims Resource Centre said
Riches' drug use was consistent with the previous release when he
attacked Jeff Hearn with a claw hammer, causing permanent brain damage.

"Seems odd to release someone who is saying he will break his
conditions/the law . . . again," Sullivan noted. "Drug abuse has been
recognized as a risk factor for him. If he's getting pot, it probably
means he's communicating with other criminals, which may also be a
violation of his conditions.

"I hope the guy turns his life around . . . but given his past
behaviour/success on conditional release, I have my doubts."