SUSPECT - POT IS CURE FOR CANCER

Maccan-Area Man Asks Court Not To Find Him Guilty

AMHERST - A Maccan-area man urged a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury
Monday to find him not guilty of three drug charges because the
marijuana he possessed and produced was a cure for cancer.

"If you were to discover the cure for cancer, could you in good
conscience keep the information from others?" Richard Logan Simpson
asked in his summation.

"If . . . you contacted every person or agency who you thought might
be able to help make the cure available and they did nothing, would
you still not feel compelled to continue to grow, process and provide
the cure? All you have to do is put yourselves in my shoes. Would you
not have tried to help people?

"In the end, it's all about a person's conscience. Would you consider
saving lives and easing human suffering with man's oldest known and
safest medication a criminal act? You can use the power invested in a
jury to find me not guilty for following my conscience."

Mr. Simpson was charged with possessing less than 30 grams of
marijuana, possessing less than three kilograms of cannabis resin for
the purpose of trafficking and unlawfully producing marijuana
following a raid on his property in August of 2005.

Initially the trafficking charge alleged that Mr. Simpson had
trafficked in cannabis resin, but it was amended Monday at the request
of Crown attorney Monica MacQueen to read that he had trafficked in
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active component in cannabis
preparations, including marijuana and cannabis resin.

The 57-year-old also told the jury it was a matter of necessity that
he sought treatment through marijuana. Pharmaceutical drugs prescribed
by a doctor, he explained, didn't alleviate the life-threatening
symptoms he experienced from post-concussion syndrome, including
depression and thoughts of suicide.

And doctors refused to even discuss giving him a prescription for
marijuana.

"That left me with no other recourse but to provide my own," he
said.

As he did in his testimony, Mr. Simpson claimed the law outlawing
marijuana was unconstitutional and forced Canadians to resort to
illegal means to acquire the effective medication.

In addition, he said he wasn't trafficking because he provided the oil
he produced to others for free.

Ms. MacQueen disagreed, pointing out to the jury that the Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act clearly states that giving away marijuana,
marijuana oil or THC was included in the law's definition of
trafficking.

There is no doubt that Mr. Simpson believes in the medicinal value of
marijuana and that he did not receive any financial gain, she said,
but that isn't enough to find him not guilty because society does not
allow an individual to decide what law they should or should not follow.

The evidence by the police and Mr. Simpson's own admissions clearly
showed he possessed marijuana, possessed THC for the purpose of
trafficking, and had grown such a large crop of marijuana that it
would have taken an individual more than 76 years to smoke it all, the
Crown attorney said.

Mr. Simpson couldn't use the defence of necessity because he could
have acquired medicinal marijuana through the federal government's own
program if he had chosen to do so, Ms. MacQueen added.

The jury will begin its deliberations today.