SECHELT MAN AWARDED CASH FOR STOLEN POT

Medical-marijuana Crusader Jim Wakeford Won A Partial Victory In Court
Yesterday.

SECHELT -- A Sunshine Coast pot grower won a partial victory when a Sechelt
judge awarded him compensation yesterday for medicinal marijuana plants
stolen from his home.

Activist Jim Wakeford -- the first Canadian to win a federal exemption to
grow and use medicinal marijuana -- sued his insurance company, Westland
Insurance Group, after the company failed to reimburse him for marijuana
plants stolen during a robbery at his Roberts Creek home last year.

Wakeford was asking for $9,000 for the pot plants and grow-op equipment,
but the court didn't buy his arguments about the value of the plants.

The company had offered him $750 for the equipment but claimed the plants
were part of an exclusionary clause that didn't cover shrubs and plants.

"These weren't plants. They were my medicine," said Wakeford.

"They would have covered my AIDS medicine if that had been stolen," he said.

As part of a mediated settlement in small-claims court, B.C. Provincial
Court Judge Reginald Grandison awarded him $1,500 for unspecified losses
and $750 for the grow-op equipment.

"There wasn't any real recognition of the value of the plants," said
Wakeford, adding he's disillusioned with the system.

Wakeford said after the theft the company cancelled his policy and the
property owner's policy as well, forcing him to move.

"The biggest deal for me was being forced from my home and the court
refused to look at that. I've had to move and that has taken a tremendous
toll on my health," he said.

Colin Thompson, representative for Westland, refused to comment on the case.

Wakeford, a former Toronto mental-health and community activist, has been
battling full-blown AIDS for 10 years.