HAMILTON GREAT-GRANDMOTHER AVOIDS POT CHARGE

HAMILTON - A Hamilton grandmother received an absolute discharge yesterday
after being arrested downtown last summer for smoking pot in a public place.

Jean Cooper, 70, a mother of six, grandmother of eight and
great-grandmother of one, pleaded guilty to the charge of possessing less
than 30 grams of cannabis.

Cooper said later she wasn't surprised about the way the case turned out.
She said any judge with a lick of sense and an ounce of compassion would
have done the same.

The petite senior was arrested on Aug. 30 after three uniformed police
officers walked into Up In Smoke Cafe, a weed-friendly shop on King Street
East where patrons openly smoke marijuana.

Federal drug prosecutor Jeffrey Levy said the officers asked Cooper at
least twice to extinguish her joint before she finally responded and put it
out.

He said the woman told police she had a doctor's note permitting her to
smoke marijuana for medical reasons. She later acknowledged, however, that
did not have a legal exemption because she had never applied to Health Canada.

"She then began to complain that she was feeling strange," said Levy. He
said a member of the staff cried out something about "Jesus and the Lord
being her salvation."

Cooper became upset and commented that she "did not want to die." An
ambulance was called and she was taken to the hospital.

Cooper told Ontario Court Justice Richard Jennis she took exception to some
facts presented by the prosecutor. She denied being belligerent or ignoring
the police request to put out the joint. She told him she was hard of
hearing and that the marijuana cigarette wasn't even burning at that point.

Duty counsel, Kirsten Hughes, filed correspondence from Health Canada to
show Cooper had at least made inquiries about getting a legal exemption
from Canada's pot laws for medical reasons.

Cooper began smoking pot about a year ago to help relieve symptoms of
advanced osteoarthritis,to stimulate appetite and to help her sleep.

"When I heard him say, 'You're under arrest,' that was the biggest shock of
my life," she said outside the courtroom.

"I felt I was being demonized even though I wasn't taking this (cannabis)
to party, but just to relax and give my body a rest."

The stress of being arrested had caused symptoms similar to a series of
mini-strokes she'd had in the past. In retrospect, she said, they were
likely signs of an anxiety attack.

Levy asked the judge to impose a conditional discharge, with conditions
that Cooper not patronize the Up In Smoke Caf- and not take non-prescribed
drugs.

But Jennis said the woman's age, health concerns and her early guilty plea
were all reasons to grant an absolute discharge.