MARIJUANA ACTIVIST GETS SIX MONTHS JAIL

Iglulik - Nunavut's most outspoken marijuana advocate will
serve time behind bars because of the very thing he promotes.

After pleading guilty to trafficking and laundering the proceeds of
crime, Ed DeVries was sentenced to six months in jail and one year
probation on Sept. 25 in Iglulik.

He imported more than 2,000 grams of marijuana to Nunavut. The pot was
concealed inside a filing cabinet.

DeVries was charged with laundering $282,539.83 worth of items, drugs
and money.

He countered in court that the total value was only
$140,000.

The Crown agreed to DeVries' estimate.

He ran in the 2006 federal election as the Marijuana Party candidate,
but was not allowed to fully participate in the CBC-hosted debate.

In that election, DeVries collected 7.88 per cent of the votes cast, a
total of 724 votes. He ended up with more support than Feliks Kappi of
the Green Party, who was allowed to participate in the radio debate.

DeVries has been offering his collection of Inuit art - which he
acquired by trading marijuana for carvings - to any organization in
Nunavut that would take it.

There are more than 600 works in the collection.