MARIJUANA ACTIVIST READY TO GIVE UP FIGHT

Appeal Court Suspends Jail Sentence

Grant Krieger says his medical marijuana activist days are over after
13 years of legal wrangling.

The Alberta Court of Appeal seems to believe him, as it overturned
the Calgary man's four-month jail sentence for trafficking, suspended
his sentence and placed him on probation for 18 months.

The ruling was released Tuesday.

"I'm tired of being a police target," said Krieger, 54, who uses the
drug to alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

"I can still use marijuana, but police always take it away from me.
I've got a court exemption to cultivate it, but it's no good because
the insurance companies stepped in and won't let me grow it. I have
to go to the black market now, and the last quarter-pound cost me $800."

Krieger acknowledged he started a compassion club for people
suffering from various illnesses, and that through his club he has
supplied the drug to many of the 430 clients.

Jordan York, a longtime friend and supporter who also suffers from
MS, says he can understand why Krieger is fed up with fighting to
help others when he keeps getting pushed back and criminalized by the system.

He insists the government program to give exemptions to people to
grow and possess their own pot was set up to fail.

"I'm glad he's not going to jail. He doesn't deserve that. He's a
hero," said York. "He's done something over the last few years that
takes more courage than anyone has got.

"But as long as they keep it illegal, people who need it (medically)
will get it and the people who give it to them are criminals."

Krieger was previously convicted of possession for the purpose of
trafficking in October 1998 and January 1999.

It was that record that provincial court Judge William Pepler said
forced him two years ago to impose a jail sentence on Krieger.

"The sentence imposed was responsive and appropriate to the
circumstances at that time," said appellate Justices Connie Hunt,
Clifton O'Brien and Peter Martin. "However, there has been
significant change in circumstances since the appellant was sentenced.

"His counsel (John Hooker) advises that Mr. Krieger has resiled in
his determination to continue to distribute marijuana to others. He
will no longer defy the law, but henceforth will comply with it. The
Crown has acknowledged that it would not be inappropriate for this
court to take these changed circumstances into account."

The argument by the Crown has always been that Krieger supplies the
drug to others, not that he grew it for himself, because his
customers did not have the legal right to possess it and he was
trafficking it to them without any medical training on whether it
should be used.

Krieger, who was convicted after police intercepted two packages he
mailed to sick people in Manitoba in 2003 and 2004, was also charged
in that province.He was convicted by a Winnipeg jury last year and is
scheduled to be sentenced April 8.

When those legal commitments are done, he'll be done with the law, he said.

"I don't go out of the house much anymore. I've turned into a
hermit," he said. "Plus, I can't afford to fight it anymore. I'm in
hock up to my eyeballs."

At Krieger's 2006 trial, his lawyer argued it was too difficult for
some ill people to obtain an exemption to use the drug under the
Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, and that's why he helped them.

He said those people now face the same dilemma as him, of having to
find their pot on the black market.

Krieger said they can't get exemptions, in most cases, as doctors are
reluctant to sign off on the treatment due to insurance concerns.

He said he was also evicted from a house for growing pot, and his
daughter, with whom he now lives, won't let him do it, either,
because she'll lose her insurance.