STIFF MARIJUANA-GROWING JAIL SENTENCE CUT IN HALF

A sentence imposed by a judge who made headlines earlier this year by saying
it was time for stiffer punishment for marijuana growers was cut in half
Thursday by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Stewart sentenced first-time offender Pu Su
to two years less a day in jail last April after Su was convicted of running
a 300-plant grow operation.

"They just found it a bit excessive," Jay Solomon, Su's lawyer, said of the
appeal court's decision to reduce the sentence to a one-year term.

Stewart's ruling came shortly after a headline-making decision he made when
sentencing another grower to the same jail term.

In that case, 30-year-old Jason Sean Neubert was found with 131 marijuana
plants in a Vancouver house. Stewart's sentence in the Neubert case was
eight-times the three-month sentence requested by Crown prosecutors.

In that ruling, Stewart said he was "upping the ante" against marijuana
growers, who he said were causing serious problems in the community.

Solomon said Stewart's reasoning in his client's case was similar, Su has
already served two months of his sentence but was given bail in June while
he awaited his appeal. He turned himself in Thursday morning to serve the
remainder of his sentence. While Stewart's judgment was seen by many as a
possible turning point in the courts' attitudes towards grow-operations,
Solomon said Stewart's sentencing decisions were unusually tough.

"It was only one judge doing this," he said.