POT ACTIVIST GETS OUT OF JAIL, MINUS STASH

Grant Krieger Wants His $1,000 Of Pot Returned

Marijuana activist Grant Krieger was released from jail Monday, but he
went home without his stash.

After serving seven days of an 11-day sentence for breaching probation
on an earlier drug conviction, Krieger, who is afflicted with multiple
sclerosis, left prison at 8:30 a.m.

He said he didn't know why he had been released early. An Alberta
justice official said Krieger was released automatically after serving
two-thirds of his sentence.

Although Krieger had been sentenced to 33 days initially, some of the
sentence was concurrent, said Bart Johnson, justice spokesperson.

The 46-year-old Calgary man, who is allowed to take marijuana for
medicinal purposes, said he will have to engage a lawyer to help him get
back the $1,000 of pot he tried to take into the jail with him.

Guards seized about 100 grams of marijuana from Krieger when he turned
himself in to serve jail time rather than pay $1,750 in fines.

Last month Krieger won a landmark court decision which allows him to
legally grow and ingest the drug. The province is appealing the
decision.

Krieger said that despite the ruling, he was advised that it is against
the Calgary Correction Centre's rules to bring marijuana into the
facility.

The pot crusader complained the jail was not very accessible for
wheelchair-bound inmates.

His chair had to be collapsed to fit through the doorway of his cell and
he often had to rely on fellow inmates to carry him in and out of his
cell, he said.