DRUG DEALER GETS A BREAK

The court of appeal yesterday quashed a trafficking conviction against
marijuana kingpin Robert "Rosie" Rowbotham.

In an unusual step last week, Crown attorney Jeff Kehoe and defence lawyer
Tim Breen asked the court of appeal to replace the dealer's 18-year
consecutive sentence with a seven-year concurrent term, which would end in
2002.

Rowbotham, now 48, was handed an 18-year consecutive sentence in 1994 for
trafficking. That sentence wouldn't start until the year 2002 when his
previous 13-year sentence expired. In 1994, he had spent 16 of his last 20
years in custody.

Rowbotham, who received the harshest sentence ever meted out in the country
for trafficking marijuana, is now a consultant to Corrections Canada and a
contributing editor to the CBC.