PRISON WITHOUT POT 'CRUEL AND UNUSUAL'

A Middle Sackville man who smokes pot to relieve neck pain argued yesterday
it would be cruel to send him to a federal prison until he can smoke his
painkiller of choice behind bars.

In what could be a groundbreaking case for those in favour of the medical
use of marijuana, Michael Ronald Patriquen, 49, has asked the Nova Scotia
Supreme Court to delay his sentencing until the federal government finishes
its clinical trials of marijuana and is ready to distribute it.

Patriquen received permits to possess and grow marijuana in July. He smokes
two grams of pot daily to dull the pain caused by a damaged nerve in his
neck, caused by a 1999 car accident.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of growing and selling marijuana before
receiving his permits.

"I don't want to go and sit in a little eight-by-four concrete room with no
medicine and no pain relief," Patriquen told reporters, calling the idea
"cruel and unusual punishment."

Yesterday, Patriquen's lawyer, Warren Zimmer, argued sending Patriquen to
jail would violate his charter rights, because he wouldn't be able to grow
his own medicinal marijuana or buy it on the street.

"When Mr. Patriquen is sentenced, he will be deprived of the only supply
available to him," Zimmer said.

"You're putting him in a set of circumstances where he's lost any access to
the medicine to which he's entitled."

But Justice Suzanne Hood pointed out that despite jailhouse rules, it's not
impossible to get drugs behind bars.

Hood will decide Tuesday whether to hear Patriquen's arguments further. If
she rules against him, he'll be sentenced that day.