POT GROWER BUSTED AGAIN

Maccan Area Man Says He Will Continue To Create 'Cure For Cancer'

AMHERST - A Maccan area man who says his marijuana-based paste cures
cancer was arrested again Friday, moments after his sentencing
hearing in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on previous charges was postponed.

"What's the world coming to when a man who has the cure for cancer
keeps getting arrested?" Rick Simpson said to reporters as two
plainclothes Amherst police officers escorted him to the police
station across the street from the courthouse.

"It's a crazy world," he said, shaking his head.

Mr. Simpson was to be sentenced Friday for possessing, unlawfully
producing and trafficking marijuana, but Justice Felix Cacchione
postponed the hearing because Mr. Simpson, who represented himself at
trial, has now retained a lawyer. Court officials said Halifax lawyer
Duncan Beveridge will be representing Mr. Simpson, but he was not in
court Friday.

Justice Cacchione postponed the sentencing until Jan. 18 and was in
the process of adjourning the hearing when Crown attorney Paul
Drysdale interrupted him to say that Mr. Simpson would be arrested
again as soon as he stepped out of the courtroom.

Mr. Simpson was startled and told the court he had not been made
aware of his pending arrest.

"I told you I would continue" producing the marijuana paste, he told
the judge. "People have to be supplied with this cure."

After a five-day jury trial in September, Mr. Simpson was found
guilty of possessing less than three kilograms of
tetrahydrocannabinol for the purpose of trafficking, producing
marijuana and possessing less than 30 grams of marijuana.

Tetrahydrocannabinol is commonly referred to as THC, the main
psychoactive substance in marijuana.

He was charged after an Aug. 3, 2005, RCMP raid on his Little Forks
Road property that netted 1,190 plants. A police marijuana expert
testified that many plants could create 83,300 grams of smokable
marijuana, enough to last a heavy user for 76 years.

At trial, Mr. Simpson admitted to possessing and growing marijuana on
his property and to giving the oil he created from the plant to
people suffering from a variety of ailments ranging from cankers to cancer.

After the jury found him guilty, Mr. Simpson urged Justice Cacchione
to jail him immediately because he vowed to continue "treating his patients."

Mr. Simpson is to be arraigned Monday in Amherst provincial court on
the new trafficking charge.