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Provincial Court Judge Gives Paul Defelice One Year in Jail to Send a
Message to Community About Drug Trafficking

They argued they provided a necessary service to a town with a
reputation for smoking pot, but the sentence handed out to the first
of four men found guilty of selling marijuana from their downtown
business showed the judge thought the community could do without it.

Paul DeFelice, co-owner of the Holy Smoke Culture Shop, was given a
one-year jail sentence despite arguing he provided untainted
marijuana in a safe environment and didn't sell to minors. DeFelice,
co-owner Alan Middlemiss and their associates, Kelsey Stratas and
Akka Annis, were found guilty in provincial court of selling
marijuana from the store which specializes in drug paraphernalia and
features a 10-foot mural of a pot leaf on the side of their building.

Annis, who had no previous record, was given 40 days in prison to be
served over weekends. Stratas and Middlemiss will be sentenced in December.

Prosecutor Robert Brown asked for nine to 12 months for DeFelice,
Middlemiss and Stratas, who all have previous drug-related
convictions. Brown said the judge had found the four men guilty of
selling drugs in an organized fashion and they had exhibited little,
if any, remorse.

"There has to be consequences or else it's going to happen again in
this community," Brown told the judge.

As he handed out the sentence, Judge Donald Sperry agreed with the
prosecutor and said DeFelice and the community had to be deterred
from selling drugs.

The four had advanced a necessity defence, an argument that says
breaking the law is acceptable when the crime prevents greater harm.
According to defence lawyer Don Skogstad, the defence had never been
applied to a drug trafficking case.

During the trial in May, the four men, self-styled the Holy Smoke
Four, didn't deny the charges they sold marijuana to undercover
police officers in 2006.

The defendants testified they didn't sell pot to minors, ensured the
drugs were pure by smoking it themselves, and provided a safe place
for people to buy the drug. They also said they sold marijuana to
people who needed the drug to deal with medical conditions.

The two owners had strongly advocated marijuana use while on the
stand and DeFelice said he thought marijuana should be sold much like
alcohol and tobacco.

The arrangement, where Holy Smoke had a section of the store set off
for marijuana sales, came about gradually. DeFelice had said it was
partly in response to drug dealers who sold pot in a nearby park.

Judge Sperry had quickly dismissed their defence when he found them
guilty in September and said the defendants were only acting in their
own interest. "Taking heat off the store is self-service, not
community service."

Speaking after the sentencing, Annis said he thought the group's drug
advocacy played a role in DeFelice's sentence.

"I think we are paying the price for our public position."

Speaking after the trial, Skogstad, the defence lawyer, said polls
have shown Canadian society favours decriminalizing marijuana.

"Nelson would be, if anything, more disposed to that view. We'll see
what the Court of Appeal has to say."