CANNABIS COUPLE SWORN TO SILENCE

A Liberal activist couple arrested for growing cannabis at home after their
teenage daughter informed on them have regained custody of her on condition
that they do not tell her off.

A judge told Robert Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Secretary of Energy,
and Kitty Tucker, 55, a well-known trade unionist and anti-nuclear
campaigner, that they would not be jailed, fined or even put on probation
for cultivating 69 cannabis plants in the basement of their home. But he
said that their daughter Kerry, 16, would have to live elsewhere, probably
with other members of the family. After an appeal by the couple's lawyers,
the judge relented and allowed Kerry home but on condition that they did
not talk about the arrest or any of the events leading up to it.

Admonitions or recriminations for Kerry from her parents would be a breach
of their bail conditions. Steven Kupferberg, the parents' lawyer, likened
the enforced silence to the presence of a large primate in the family home
in Takoma Park, a suburb of Washington that is popular with well-off liberals.

"The family is doing as well as it can, considering the 300lb gorilla in
the living room," he said. He declined to explain what had prompted Miss
Tucker to visit the local police station in August, carrying with her
photographs of her parents' illicit crop.

"Everyone has their problems," he said, "Kerry's are educational and
emotional." Police who raided the house found 69 plants, lamps for growing
the drug and other cannabis-related paraphernalia. Mr Kupferberg said Kitty
Tucker used cannabis medicinally to combat an illness that gave her chronic
muscular pain. Mr Alvarez, 54, lost his job after his arrest.

His wife, who is now semi-retired, rose to public prominence after
representing Karen Silkwood, a nuclear worker who died in mysterious
circumstances after raising concerns about safety at the plant where she
worked.