PATRIQUEN GETS SIX YEARS, WEED PULLED

Judge Denies Activist Marijuana To Ease Pain During Jail Term

An outspoken pot activist will spend nearly six years behind bars without a
puff of the medical marijuana he says he needs for his chronic pain.

Michael Ronald Patriquen, 49, who holds federal licences to grow and
possess the drug for pain relief, had argued his constitutional rights
would be violated if he were sent to prison without access to a safe and
legal supply of pot.

But Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Hood rejected Patriquen's
claim yesterday, ruling there was no evidence Patriquen's rights would be
violated in jail.

"It is speculative at this stage to say that Corrections Canada will act in
a way that will violate Mr. Patriquen's Charter rights," Hood ruled.

Crown attorney James Martin and Patriquen's lawyer, Warren Zimmer, agreed
to a six-year sentence in a federal jail. Patriquen, 49, had earlier
pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic marijuana in Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland between 1998 and 1999.

But Patriquen told Hood she was sentencing him to "cruel and unusual
punishment" by sending him to a place where he can't get marijuana.

"When I leave here, I'm subjected to a term of cruel and unusual
punishment, at your hands," an upset Patriquen told Hood.

"May God have mercy on your soul, your honour. This is not Iraq or China,"
Patriquen's distraught wife, Melanie Stephen, shouted at Hood before
sheriffs' deputies dragged her from the courtroom.

Patriquen, who has a criminal record dating back to 1976, was part of a
marijuana ring that operated in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland between 1998
and 1999. Police once found $26,000 cash in a secret compartment in his
car, and $100,000 in his luggage after a trip from Newfoundland.

They seized more than 300 plants from three Nova Scotia growing operations,
and $13,380 hidden in a stereo speaker in Patriquen's home. As part of
yesterday's sentencing, the federal Crown will keep that money.

Once the drug is refused to him in prison, Patriquen, a former Marijuana
Party candidate, can ask the Federal Court of Canada to order that a supply
be found for him.

But Corrections Canada spokeswoman Chantal Albert said yesterday there
isn't a legal supply of the drug available, so the agency can't buy any. If
Patriquen is caught buying the drug illegally in jail, he could be charged,
fined, kept in solitary confinement, or sent to a higher-security jail.

"Even if prescribed, the Correctional Service of Canada cannot at this time
purchase the drug," Albert said.

"Of course, we certainly will not obtain the drug illegally."

Use for pain encouraged

The state of the country's marijuana laws has been making national news
frequently in the last two weeks.

Last Thursday, a Senate committee recommended pot smoking be legal for
anyone older than 16.

It also recommended easier access to medical marijuana for people like
Michael Patriquen, who use the drug to alleviate pain. Patriquen smokes two
grams of pot daily to dull the pain caused by a damaged nerve in his neck,
the result of a 1999 car accident.

About 800 people, including Patriquen, have permits to possess and grow the
drug for medicinal purposes. Corrections Canada spokeswoman Chantal Albert
said yesterday there are no inmates with permits.

The federal Health Department is hoping in late fall or early winter to
conduct clinical trials on marijuana being grown at federal sites in Flin
Flon, Man.