JURY NOT 'WEEDLED'

Won't Try Changing Law For Unrepentant Toker

Richard Quinton knew police had caught him green-handed.

On March 8, 2006, city police executed a search warrant at Quinton's
Oakwood Avenue home and seized 24 marijuana plants from his basement.
Police charged him with production of marijuana, possession of
marijuana and possession of marijuana resin.

The 63-year-old longtime pot smoker never argued the plants weren't
his or that he was wrongly accused. He said he's an unrepentant toker
who grew the weed for his own use.

But that didn't mean he was going to plead guilty to the charges in
court. Not if contesting the charges gave him a forum to fight what
he says is an unjust law that criminalizes otherwise law-abiding citizens.

"I pleaded not guilty for one reason and one reason only -- I'm old
and I don't have to worry about my criminal record," Quinton told
jurors at his recent trial. "Without these charges, I wouldn't have
anything on my record except for a traffic offence."

Quinton -- who defended himself at his trial -- told jurors he's an
alcoholic who "still like(s) to party."

"When I want to party, I know better than to deal with alcohol," he
said. "That's my whole defence in a nutshell."

During the course of a lengthy and sometimes rambling address,
Quinton provided jurors with a primer on the production of hash oil
("That's good stuff -- they call that 'hippie crack' in Calgary"),
outlined the decline of the Afghanistan hash trade ("They don't make
hash in Afghanistan anymore, there is too much money in cocaine") and
compared marijuana to Viagra.

Quinton also directed a barb at police and their "shifters" or end-of
shift booze-ups.

"Shifters are the drug of choice for police men," he said. "That's
the drug of choice because it's legal, not because it's the best,
that's for sure."

Quinton urged jurors to acquit him and send a message to the court
that the criminalization of marijuana is wrong.

"I want a jury to provide a judge with enough spine to stand up to a
political system that is so skewed against anybody making an appeal .
to getting the law changed," he said. "You pick your own battles in
life and this is one I'm prepared to lose, but I think it's important."

Jurors don't get to pick and choose what laws people should be bound
by, said Crown attorney Wanda Garreck.

"Mr. Quinton may think that the law is bad and he has a democratic
right to try and change the law ... but he cannot ask that you change
that law. That isn't the role of a jury," she said.

Jurors apparently agreed and convicted Quinton on all three counts
after less than one hour of deliberations.

Justice Colleen Suche sentenced Quinton to two years' supervised
probation and ordered he undergo a drug addiction assessment.