POT GROWER WINS BIG BATTLE FOR MEDICINAL USERS

Judge Calls Bill Small's Supplies To Ailing People "Humane And Altruistic"

A B.C. Supreme Court judge recognized medicinal-marijuana use yesterday in
his decision to grant an absolute discharge to an unselfish grower who
pleaded guilty to cultivating pot.

Bill Small was a director of the B.C. Compassion Club when police raided
his Roberts Creek home in September 1998 and found more than 200 marijuana
plants.

He was growing various strains of marijuana solely for club members.

The plants the police found were dead and earmarked for the compost heap
because they were of no use to the club - a registered non-profit society
that supplies about 1,1000 cancer, AIDS and multiple-sclerosis patients
with the strains of marijuana that ease their suffering.

Some 85 grams of the drug found in a baggie was destined for club use.

"I am satisfied that your motives for the commission of this offence were
humane and altruistic, to fulfill what you believed was a pressing need to
assist others who needed marijuana for medicinal purposes," said Justice
Randall Wong.

His decision means Small - who retired from a successful but stressful
career as a real estate magnate six years ago because of life-threatening
ulcers - has no criminal record.

Lawyer John Conroy argued, Small, 40, should receive a discharge, in light
of a recent ruling by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

A former director of the Canadian Red Cross, Small is now a bluegrass
musician who makes his living largely in the U.S. Justice Wong noted a
criminal record would likely have prevented Small from crossing the border
to work.

"This is freedom," said a grateful Small. "It's freedom for the Compassion
Club to do what's necessary for people who require this drug."

He said Justice Wong's ruling sends a positive message to people who want
to stand up for their beliefs.

"It says , if you're doing the right thing for the right reasons, the
courts will look at the reality of it instead of Reefer Madness hype.

The courts are listening to the truth .

..It's a human-rights issue."

Justice Wong observed federal Health Minister Allan Rock has recently
issued a protocol for trials to obtain a future supply of medical marijuana.

"Realistically, no legal supply for marijuana for permissable medical use
is likely to be available in the forseeable future," said the judge.

"For those who do require marijuana for medicinal purposes, their need is
immediate and pressing."

Wong cited a B.C. Appeal Court decision earlier this month, in which the
dissenting judge in a 2-1 ruling found the law against marijuana possession
was out of step with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because of the
minimal harm caused by the drug.

The appeal judges, in the combined cases of Malmo-Levine and Caine, found
marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, but the majority ruled
the potential harm the drug could cause allows Parliament to designate it a
danger to society and deal with it as it sees fit.

Wong predicted "the Malmo-Levine and Caine cases will likely go to the
Supreme Court of Canada to set future parameters of the criminal law to
suppress perceived social evil." But that won't happen, says lawyer
Conroy, unless an extra stash of cash is found, because he's too busy to
work on the case in his spare time.

Co-campaigner has her own fight to wage

Among Bill Small's supporters at his sentencing yesterday was Renee
Danielle Boje, an American caught up in her country's war on drugs because
of her involvement with the medicinal use of marijuana.

Boje who is fighting extradition to the U.S., has returned to her West
Coast residence after a visit to Ottawa, where she lobbied MPs to drop
Canada's ban on the medicinal use of marijuana.

The 30-year old artist faces a mandatory 10-year jail term if she is found
guilty of cultivating marijuana. Her crime was watering and moving around
plants at the Bel Air mansion of medicinal marijuana activist Todd
McCormick. In Canada, the same activity would warrant only a fine or an
extremely light sentence.

Justice Minister Anne McLellan is being asked to stop Boje's extradition on
compassionate grounds.

"I didn't meet with the minister but I managed to get two letters to her
assistant - and a statue of [the Hindu god] Shiva," said Boje.

She came home to disheartening news: McCormick's publisher, Peter
McWilliams, had died at his Los Angeles home, where he was serving under
house-arrest a sentence for conspiracy to traffic in marijuana.

Boje was to illustrate McCormick's planned book evaluating the
effectiveness of varying strains of marijuana in alleviating severe ailments.

McCormick is appealing a five-year U.S. federal sentence for growing pot on
the grounds he was not allowed to enter the defence that it is legal under
California law to grow and use the plant for medicinal purposes.

McCormick contracted a rare form of bone cancer at age two.

"He can't be doing well in jail," said Boje's lawyer, John Conroy.