COURT URGED TO DISCHARGE MEDICAL POT PURVEYOR

Providing medical marijuana to sick people should not leave Philippe Lucas
with a criminal record, his lawyer said Friday in Victoria provincial court.

John Conroy called for an absolute discharge for the 32-year-old Lucas, who
began distributing marijuana through the non-profit Vancouver Island
Compassion Society in the fall of 1999. The court heard that Lucas
discovered therapeutic qualities in marijuana after being diagnosed with
hepatitis C in 1996.

Lucas said he likely contracted chronic liver condition from a blood
transfusion during an operation in the early 1980s. Using marijuana helped
him deal with his illness, he said at his sentencing hearing before Judge
Robert Higinbotham.

"There was no doubt in my mind that this truly was a medicine," he said to
a gallery packed with supporters. He said he had a federal permit for
personal use of medical marijuana, but that such permits can be hard to obtain.

Finding a source of medical marijuana can also be difficult, he said.

Ronald Ranger, one of the 230 members of the Vancouver Island Compassion
Society, testified that medical marijuana obtained through the group helped
reverse blindness caused by glaucoma and other eye ailments. Using
marijuana relieves damaging pressure on his eyes, he explained.

Ranger said he relies on the society for his marijuana and that he had been
mugged in his few attempts to obtain it on the street. Without the society
"I'd have to stop using cannabis, and I'd go blind again," he said.

Lucas pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking in January. He had been charged with drug offences in November,
2000, following a break-in at the society's offices, then located in Oak Bay.

Marijuana stolen in the break-in was recovered by Oak Bay police. Lucas was
charged after identifying the marijuana as belonging to the society.

Crown counsel Lori McMorran said Lucas deserves a fine and a period of
probation for has actions with the society.

"Trafficking is a serious offence," she said, adding that records show
Lucas has continued to be active with the group.

Despite any "philosophical cloak" that may be used to describe the concept
of the society, "what he was doing was illegal and contrary to the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act," McMorran said.

She pointed out that the application to establish the society's offices in
Oak Bay made no mention of marijuana. Lucas responded that the mention
wasn't left out to be deceitful, it was done "because it was clear the city
would have turned down the application under the circumstances."

He said he was recently re-elected a member of the compassion society's
board and intends to keep working there.

"Until Health Canada can find a cure for all of our members ...I'll
continue to do what I can to help out."

Higinbotham will issue a sentencing decision at a later date.