'YOU'VE SENTENCED ME TO A FATE THAT IS REALLY WORSE THAN DEATH'

Sympathetic judge compelled to sentence man suffering multiple painful
ailments for growing pot

A man waiting for federal approval to grow his own medicinal pot
pleaded with a judge Wednesday to allow him to continue to treat himself.

Instead, Queen's Bench Justice Frank Gerein said he didn't have the
power to grant such a request. He handed Eric Angst one-year of
probation for growing his own marijuana.

"I'm going to be confined to my bed and my wife is going to have to
carry me around if I follow your order," Angst said.

"You've sentenced me to a fate that is really worse than
death."

As sentence was passed Wednesday, Angst, 56, twitched several times
and braced himself against a wall in the prisoner's box.

He was sentenced for growing 12 plants in the bedroom of his trailer
east of the city in 1997.

The same charge against his wife, Barbara Angst, was dropped by the
Crown Wednesday.

Angst has applied to the federal minister of health to be exempted
from Canada's drug laws and allowed to grow his own pot.

He has been diagnosed with two severe types of arthritis, fibromyalgia
and irritable bowl syndrome.

"This is all about quality of life," Angst told the judge. "This
allows me to get out of bed in the morning. It keeps my wife from
having to carry me out of bed and do everything for me."

Justice Gerein said no matter how much sympathy he felt for Angst's
obvious discomfort, and for the apparent relief marijuana brings, he
was required to uphold the law and impose some sentence.

"It's not for me to decide whether or not you or any other person can
use marijuana," Gerein said. "That falls to the federal government.
It's not for me to simply ignore the law because I'm filled with
sympathy or compassion for a particular individual."

Because Angst has a record, including an offence dating back to 1972
for drug possession, and because cultivating marijuana is a serious
offence, Gerein said he had to impose some sort of sentence.

Because the record is so dated and Angst poses no threat to the
public, Gerein suspended passing sentence for one year and imposed
probation.

Part of the probation is that Angst follow the law, which would
include that he not possess marijuana.

Gerein denied a request from the Crown that police be granted the
power to search Angst's home without warrant while he served his sentence.

Angst was not pleased by the compromise. He repeated his contention
that life without marijuana is a sentence worse than death.

Gerein answered that his hands were tied by his duty to follow the
law. Last fall the federal government provided exemptions to 20
people, most suffering from AIDS and cancer, to grow and take their
own pot.

Angst has a similar application currently in front of Health Minister
Alan Rock.