MAN 'JUMPS GUN' WITH GROW-OP?

A judge of the Ontario Court of Justice was told this week that a
former Queen's University student, caught by Kingston Police with a
grow operation in his attic and three Zip-lock bags of marijuana bud,
was growing the weed as medicine for his dad.

Christopher Robinson, 20, pleaded guilty in front of Justice Judith
Beaman to a single count of illegal production of a controlled
substance and was given a six-month conditional sentence to serve in
the community under restrictions.

Beaman ordered that he's to spend the first six months under house
arrest, with exemptions allowing him to work and to attend to other
necessary obligations. In the final two months of his sentence, he's
subject to a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Federal Crown prosecutor Dave Crowe told the judge that members of
Kingston's drug unit executed a search warrant on the Bagot Street
house where Robinson was living on Feb. 23, 2009. In the attic, he
said, they discovered the walls and ceiling had been completely
covered with tin foil and high-voltage lights had been installed over
tables containing an undisclosed number of potted marijuana seed
- -lings, each equipped with its own watering tube to draw moisture from
one of several tubs of water placed on the floor.

Officers also found three bags of processed marijuana bud, weighing
56.7 grams, elsewhere in the house, that Robinson's defence lawyer,
David Adams, disclosed had been purchased by his client.

Adams told the judge there had been a party the night before the
police raid and he admitted that his client had used some of the
purchased marijuana, but the defence lawyer said Robinson's position
has always been that the grow operation was set up to help his father.

Adams explained that Bill Robinson was involved in a serious accident
some time ago and suffered whiplash. As a result, Adams said, the man
developed chronic pain syndrome and he told Beaman that "cannaboids
are what relieves it."

Adams said Robinson senior applied to Health Canada for a
dispensation, allowing him to grow a regulated quantity of the herb
for his own medicinal purposes.

The defence lawyer provided the judge with a letter, indicating that
permission has since been granted, but at the time Robinson junior set
up his grow operation, Adams said the family was still waiting for a
decision.

He suggested to Beaman that what actually happened was, "Chris jumped
the gun."

Crowe joined Adams in recommending the conditional sentence to Beaman,
observing that the 20-year-old has "a solid background" and no prior
criminal record at the time of his arrest on the charge.

Beaman still questioned the large quantity of marijuana bud Robinson
had purchased and whether it was entirely for personal use, however.

The younger Robinson told her that most of the marijuana he bought was
"for investigative purposes" and explained that his father's mode of
using the plant is to ingest it with food.

"It's a trick to get the marijuana into the food," he said, hence the
need to test recipes.

Beaman remained skeptical and told the lawyers that the story didn't
entirely "fit together," but she nevertheless accepted their joint
recommendation.