POT CRUSADER MAY AVOID JAIL SENTENCE

Manitoba justice officials are not seeking a jail sentence against a
medical marijuana crusader found guilty of trafficking pot to several
clients across Canada.

Grant Krieger feared he would die behind bars after jurors found him
guilty during his high-profile Queen's Bench trial last fall. But the
Calgary resident returned to Winnipeg for sentencing Wednesday and
learned the Crown agrees he can remain free in the community under a
conditional sentence. The judge has reserved her decision until next month.

Krieger, 54, announced last week he was shutting down the Grant W.
Krieger Cannabis Research Foundation, in which he has distributed pot
to hundreds of sick and dying people across Canada. The move prompted
the Alberta Court of Appeal to replace a four-month jail sentence
with 18 months of probation.

Krieger has been battling progressive multiple sclerosis since 1978
and says his only relief comes from smoking and ingesting cannabis.
At his Winnipeg trial last year, Krieger admitted he broke the law
but was seeking to be acquitted on sympathetic grounds. Jurors took
only about 30 minutes to reach their unanimous guilty verdict.

"There are no victims in this," Krieger told the Free Press outside
court Wednesday. "The only victims are people I can no longer serve."

Krieger testified in his own defence how his life was in a rapid
downward spiral and even included a suicide attempt prior to
discovering the magic of marijuana.

"Without it, I wouldn't be standing here before you today," he told
jurors. "I'd be in a wheelchair or dead right now."

Krieger said his many customers are in a similar position -- they are
suffering from chronic pain, disease and even terminal illness and
have come to him looking to improve their quality of life. He admits
selling pot to dozens of people across Canada -- including several in
Manitoba -- but insisted there is a major difference between him and
your garden-variety drug dealer.

The Crown's case against Krieger was simple -- although he had
clearance to possess pot for his own health reasons, he didn't have
permission from the federal government to sell marijuana for
medicinal reasons. There is a program in place to distribute the drug
to those who get special clearance from doctors, but Krieger said the
whole system is flawed. He said most doctors are afraid to make such
a declaration. And Krieger ripped the feds for the quality of their
drugs, which are produced in Flin Flon.

"It's grown in a dirty mine shaft," Krieger told jurors. He said the
drug is overly processed and diluted by the time it gets to those in need.