CHARTER RIGHTS OF SICK DON'T EXCUSE TRAFFICKING IN DRUGS, COURT FINDS

CALGARY -- Alberta's top court has ruled against medical marijuana
crusader Grant Krieger. The Albert Court of Appeal says Mr. Krieger
can't "piggyback" on the Charter rights of sick people to have access
to medicinal marijuana.

The three-judge court rejected submissions by defence lawyer John
Hooker that Mr. Krieger should be given a constitutional exemption to
Canada's trafficking laws.

Mr. Hooker argued that patients to whom Mr. Krieger supplied marijuana
were entitled to get it, but the government hadn't created a suitable
scheme for them to obtain it.

Mr. Krieger readily admitted providing the drugs through his
Compassion Club to sick individuals who couldn't get doctors to
approve marijuana prescriptions.

Mr. Hooker said doctors are reluctant to provide patients with the
necessary paperwork to get government approval for marijuana
prescriptions.

"It's extremely difficult for the members of the Compassion Club, the
ill people ... to get their prescriptions," Mr. Hooker said.

"He's trying to help extremely ill people and the government has
blocked that."

Mr. Hooker said that as in the case of Henry Morgentaler, who was
acquitted of providing abortions at a time when it was illegal to do
so, Mr. Krieger was trying to right a legal wrong. "If there's a
manifest unfairness, it's got to be fixed," he said. "We're trying to
piggyback Mr. Krieger on the rights of his patients."

But Mr. Justice Ronald Berger, in giving the appeal court's unanimous
ruling, said that Mr. Krieger wasn't entitled to rely on the Charter
rights of others to ignore the law.

"The appellant ... alleges that those he supplies are disadvantaged
and accordingly he, the supplier, is entitled to adjunct
constitutional protection," Judge Berger said.

"That argument has to be rejected."

A date for Mr. Krieger's appeal of his four-month sentence for
trafficking has not yet been set.