CHALLENGE AGAINST DRUG CHARGES TOSSED OUT

A 58-year-old Douro-Dummer Township woman pleaded with a superior
court judge to throw out her drug charges Thursday, but was told she
was bringing her concerns to the wrong court.

"I just want to live," Debra McIntyre said, pleading with the court,
sometimes banging her hands on the table.

"I'm trying as hard as I can to stay alive."

McIntyre is jointly charged with two other people with marijuana
production and theft of electricity.

McIntyre was in court based on the same arguments filed by Mark
MacDonald and Benny Almud in September, which a judge ruled had no
standing in Superior Court of Justice. But McIntyre was also trying
to distance herself from one of her co-accused who she referred to as
"the predator," the man who built her home.

McIntyre said she didn't know how she was going to make it through
the winter without electricity or water, which have both been cut off.

Mr. Justice Drew S. Gunsolus said he didn't have any jurisdiction to
deal with McIntyre's charges and that she was "under a total
misapprehension of what she can and can't do."

He asked Crown attorney Mauro DiCarlo to inform McIntyre's lawyer
Jason Forget about "the extreme upset that (the situation) is causing her."

Forget is representing McIntyre in Ontario Court of Justice, the
court her charges are currently before.

McIntyre represented herself at superior court Thursday.

McIntyre, Tina Butcher, 47, and Robert Glabais, 40, were jointly
charged Jan. 7 with production of marijuana and theft of electricity
at a Douro-Dummer property.

At their court appearance last week, McIntyre and Butcher sat on the
opposite side of the courtroom from Glabais.

Their case is set for a preliminary hearing April 8. McIntyre and
Butcher, who have separate counsel, wanted to go straight to trial in
Ontario Court of Justice. Glabais, who is representing himself,
wanted to be tried in Superior Court of Justice in front of a judge and jury.

Because they chose different courts, a preliminary hearing must be held.

"We'll be dragged around for years," McIntyre said Thursday.

McIntyre says she's a medical marijuana user.

MacDonald and Almud wanted their charges dismissed because they
argued that marijuana possession laws have been invalid since 2003
because of the landmark Terry Parker case.

Parker, an epileptic, won the right to smoke pot for medicinal
purposes in 2000.

Madam Justice Cory A. Gilmore ruled in October that the men had no
standing to make such an argument in superior court and the "proper
forum" is at trial in Ontario Court of Justice.

The Parker case "did not have the effect of deleting marijuana" from
the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and only "Parliament can
repeal its own legislation," Gilmore wrote.

Gilmore dismissed their application "with prejudice."

Almud and MacDonald were both charged before Health Canada approved
them for medical marijuana licences.

Almud pleaded guilty to his charges Sept. 28, the day after the case
was heard in superior court.

MacDonald's possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking
charge was stayed Wednesday.