POT FARMER FREED PENDING APPEAL

A Penticton man sentenced to almost two years in jail for his part in a
massive marijuana grow operation near 100 Mile House, was freed on bail
Thursday, pending an appeal.

Kenneth Orrin McLennan, 53, and co-accused David Munro, 53, of Surrey, were
charged after police stumbled on the 2,400-plant grow operation when a fire
broke out in a shed housing a diesel generator used to power the operation.

McLennan had been a resident on the property outside 100 Mile House, while
Munro and his wife were the owners. Charges of trafficking were dropped when
McLennan and Munro pleaded guilty to production.

Though the prosecution had recommended a jail sentence of one year, Justice
Ian Pitfield, after pointing to the prevalence of grow operations in both
100 Mile House and Surrey, handed down sentences of two years less a day for
both accused.

Lawyer Richard Kaiser, who defended Munro, said the decision illustrates the
increasingly apparent split among judges in B.C. between those coming down
particularly hard on growers and those who still follow earlier precedents
for more lenient sentences. He said no date has been set for the appeal.

McLennan, who took a job in Penticton in March, said he decided that a "get
rich scheme of growing a whole lot of pot and selling quick" would set him
up for the future. While he asserted he was going to participate only once
in order to use the profit to start a motorcycle repair shop, Justice
Pitfield said the evidence pointed to a "continuing commercial operation."

Pitfield ruled profits would probably be in the $2.5 to $3 million range
annually.

"By any standard this operation was very extensive and commercial in nature,
and was designed to produce large amounts of revenue," he said.

Much of Pitfield's decision focuses on relatively recent decisions which
allow judges to consider "local conditions" in judgments. A 1999 decision
cited pointed to "the burgeoning business of marijuana growing in the 100
Mile House area," while another, from February of this year, refers to the
"epidemic" of marijuana production in Surrey.

"I am well aware that there is a division of opinion in the community about
the effects, harmful or otherwise, associated with the consumption of
marijuana," Pitfield conceded.

"Some might say there are mixed messages as well in the context of
suggestions that the government of Canada will invite, or has invited
proposals for the production of marijuana on a contract basis for medical
use."

And much was made by the defence, he said, of evidence to the effect that
consumption was not harmful. But consumption and production, he said, are
not the same.