POPULARITY SPURRED DRUG SALES TO LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

When asked by Justice John Evans why he sold marijuana to students outside
a Bracebridge high school, Michael Harvie said it wasn't for the money.

"I knew where to get it one time, and then they expected me to get it,"
said Harvie, 20, of Port Sydney. "I didn't know enough to say no. Then it
was for the reputation, for people knowing my name."

Harvie appeared at Bracebridge court last week to be sentenced for
possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of proceeds from
crime and breach of probation, three crimes he pleaded guilty to in March.
Justice Evans ordered a pre-sentence report at that time.

Harvie and two other people, none of them students, were charged during a
Muskoka Crime Unit investigation of drug sales at Bracebridge and Muskoka
Lakes Secondary School on December 5, 2003. Officers found Harvie's vehicle
at the school's bus loading area on Armstrong Street at about 2:30 p.m.

After a brief chase, police stopped and searched Harvie's vehicle, finding
small bags of marijuana under the driver's seat and in the glove
compartment. Harvie gave police $590 cash, and 10 ounces of marijuana.
Total street value of drugs seized was $1,600.

The Crown later dropped charges against the other two people.

Defence attorney Peter Ward said Harvie first believed selling the drug
near the school was not serious, but had changed his views.

"Marijuana is a soft drug, so Mr. Harvie was not committing the world's
biggest crime," said Ward.

Federal Crown attorney Peter Heath told the court that whatever Ward's
opinion of marijuana was, the Crown saw its sale as serious, especially
near a school of 1,000 students.

"The bus loading area was a wonderful market for Mr. Harvie," said Heath,
describing the accused's vehicle as a travelling drug store.

In reply, Ward told the court he saw a dichotomy in the treatment of
marijuana and alcohol offences.

"Twenty-five per cent of the docket today was drinking and driving charges,
yet there is something schizophrenic in the treatment of marijuana
offences," said Ward. "There is something odd about alcohol being accepted
and fine because it is legal. I have yet to see a case of fatality after
someone smoked a joint behind the wheel, but unfortunately I have seen it
with alcohol. Our attitude makes no sense to me."

Justice Evans replied the court was not there to discuss the political case
of alcohol versus marijuana.

Harvie was sentenced to three months in jail for possession for the
purposes of trafficking, one-month custody for possession of proceeds from
crime, and one-month jail concurrently for breach of probation.