COUPLE ENDS DRUG LAW FIGHT

A disabled Calgary couple who say pot eases their pain, abandoned their bid
yesterday to challenge Canada's drug laws.

John and Anne Marie Kinsey each pleaded guilty to marijuana-related charges
following a raid on their southeast Calgary home nearly two years ago.

Crown prosecutor Scott Couper said the couple kept a few small marijuana
plants in their 26 St. S.E. house.

"The search revealed a small marijuana grow area in the living room," he
told Justice Scott Brooker of the raid June 24, 1998.

Brooker gave Anne Marie Kinsey a nine-month suspended sentence for simple
possession after rejecting Couper's suggestion of a $750 fine.

John Kinsey, who is often confined to a wheelchair, will be sentenced in
June on a more serious charge of producing a controlled substance following
preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Brooker said a suspended sentence without community service was warranted
for the wife because a fine would be too much of a hardship.

Defence lawyer Robert Haslam said his client suffers from glaucoma and is
often bed-ridden with migraine headaches.