POTHEAD GETS STERN LECTURE BUT AVOIDS JAIL

Despite being nabbed with a wad of drug cash stuffed in his underwear
and a backpack full of dope, a Calgary man was spared jail yesterday.

Instead, provincial court Judge Cheryl Daniel handed Jordan Adam
Yaremus a 12-month conditional sentence, gave him a stern lecture and
made him apologize to his crying mother.

"It's broken your mom's heart," Daniel said.

"Look at your mom ... and tell her what you need to tell her," she
told Yaremus, as his mother sat wiping away tears in the courtroom
gallery.

"Nothing like this will ever happen again," Yaremus said, as he turned
to her.

"The two big words are?" Daniel prodded.

"I'm very sorry," the convicted drug dealer said.

Daniel convicted Yaremus, 22, in May, of three charges including
possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and possessing
the proceeds of crime.

He was arrested by cops on Aug. 20, 2006, who found about $4,400 worth
of the drug in his backpack, a buck knife hidden under the driver's
seat of his car and $1,690 in cash stuffed into his underwear.

At the request of Crown prosecutor Scott Couper, Daniel ordered the
forfeiture of all the items seized, including the 75 bills of various
denominations, mostly $20s.

Before deciding whether to accept Couper's request for jail, or the
conditional sentence sought by defence lawyer Eleanor Funk, Daniel
asked Yaremus to describe the effect drug use has had on his life.

"We just partied too much, me and my friends," he said.

"I just got stuck in the wrong crowd."

Daniel said she was concerned a pre-sentence report said Yaremus was
continuing to consume pot, although not as frequently as he had been
before being charged.

"The fact that you are still smoking marijuana means that you're still
stuck with the wrong crowd," she said.

But Yaremus assured Daniel his drug using days are behind him.

His conditional sentence includes an order he abstain from drugs and
booze.