MAN WHO HAULED POT BEATS TRAFFICKING CHARGES

REGINA - Canada's courts have to ensure police do not treat all
citizens as suspects, according to a lawyer who represented a man
acquitted of drug trafficking despite the fact RCMP found 524
marijuana plants in his vehicle.

"The precondition of all police conduct is the prerequisite of
reasonable and probable grounds," Tim Brown said.

Brown went to the Court of Appeal Tuesday to argue against an appeal
by the Attorney General of Canada challenging a May 1999 decision by a
Yorkton judge who ruled the RCMP search of a truck driven by Lorry
Richard Smith was improper. As a result, the marijuana found in a
sealed box in the truck could not be admitted as evidence and Smith
was acquitted.

On Tuesday, three Saskatchewan Court of Appeal justices dismissed the
Crown's appeal and upheld Justice Wayne McIntyre's acquittal. A
relieved Smith, 45, hugged Brown.

On the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1995, Const. Ken McLaughlin of the
Broadview RCMP highway patrol saw a rental truck with Ontario plates
parked on a grid road just off the Trans-Canada Highway, near the
Manitoba border.

McLaughlin approached the truck and asked the driver, Smith, if he
needed help. He then asked where Smith was headed. Smith said he was
going to B.C.

When McLaughlin asked what was in the truck, Smith replied there were
two cases of wine. The officer searched the truck, found some wine and
a sealed box and arrested Smith for importing too much liquor.When the
truck's contents were searched more thoroughly and the box was pried
open, RCMP found the tiny marijuana plants and charged Smith with
trafficking, possession and cultivation.

McIntyre ruled that the moment the officer asked Smith what was in the
truck, his line of questions progressed from innocent conversation to
purposeful investigation. As such, there was no grounds for the
subsequent warrantless search, one that Smith felt compelled to
participate in.

Arguing for the Crown, lawyer Byron Wright told the justices that the
officer's questions did not amount to a detention of Smith, and that
opening the back of the truck did not amount to unreasonable search
and seizure.