PENSIONER FINED FOR GROWING POT IN BACKYARD

BRIDGEWATER - A Lunenburg County grandfather has been fined after
police found marijuana plants growing in his tomato patch. Prosecutor
Leigh-Ann Bryson said the RCMP got a warrant to search the Newburne
Road property of Anthony Edwin Eisnor on Sept. 5.

When officers got there, they found 24 mature plants in his backyard
and tomato patch.

Defence lawyer Tom Feindel said the 69-year-old pensioner suffers from
a kidney disease called Bartter's syndrome, and the pot helps relieve
the pain.

Mr. Eisnor did have a doctor in Mahone Bay who wrote him a note saying
he is allowed to smoke the marijuana and then he set about filling in
the forms to apply for a medical marijuana exemption.

But Mr. Eisnor has a different doctor now, and that doctor does not
think he needs the marijuana. Mr. Feindel said his client takes 30
separate pills and is on dialysis once a week.

"It is a necessary medication from his perspective," although not
sanctioned by the court, Mr. Fiendel told Judge Jim Burrill of
Bridgewater provincial court last week.

Judge Burrill fined Mr. Eisnor $1,000, citing his limited income, and
placed him on probation for a year.

The judge said he didn't see any benefit in requiring Mr. Eisnor to
regularly report in person to a probation officer, but he did tell him
he had better get a new family doctor if he wants to smoke marijuana
to alleviate the symptoms of his illness.