PROBATION FOR POT

Crippled by a 30-year-old back injury, a Calgary man yesterday said
he's been turned into a drug addict because marijuana is illegal.

John Kinsey said he has had to endure increasingly higher doses of
prescription morphine because he can't smoke dope to ease pain.

"I scream inside the justice system forced me to become a morphine
addict," Kinsey told a Calgary court.

Justice Scott Brooker showed some mercy on the 55-year-old social
assistance recipient, sparing him the jail term or strict supervision
being sought by the Crown.

"There doesn't appear to be a victim in this case," said Brooker, in
placing Kinsey on probation for 18 months for cultivating a narcotic.

Police raided Kinsey's southeast Calgary home on June 24, 1998, and
found seven small plants with a potential value of $15,000.