COURT UPHOLDS SENTENCE OF COMPASSION CLUB GROWER

The sentence handed to a Richmond man, arrested following the raid of a
local medicinal marijuana growing operation in April of 2001, has been
upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

Paul Hornby was arrested by Richmond RCMP during a raid of a greenhouse on
his three-acre residential property at 10471 Palmberg Rd. Inside, police
found 367 marijuana plants, 1,892 clones and nine boxes of dried cultivated
marijuana with a street value of between $664,000 and $2.4 million. They
also seized a modified fully automatic M-16 rifle, which was unloaded, and
a switchblade.

Hornby was sentenced last March after pleading guilty to possession for the
purpose of trafficking, possessing an unregistered firearm, and marijuana
production. He received a 12-month conditional sentence for trafficking, a
$500 fine for the weapons offence and a $1,000 fine for marijuana production.

Hornby appealed the sentence, but a B.C. Court of Appeal was unanimous in
upholding the sentence.

Madam Justice C.A. Ryan noted that unlike a similar case to Hornby, his
motivation for growing the marijuana was not solely benevolent.

"The sentencing judge in the case at bar found that while there was a
benevolent component to the appellant's intent to supply the Compassion
Club with marijuana, that this was not his only motivation. She concluded
that 'the overwhelming effect of his evidence is to show he was primarily
motivated by his ambition to conduct research on cannabis within his field
of expertise and training and to realize the professional and financial
benefits of that research.'"

Ryan noted that the sentencing judge concluded that Hornby "was very much
alive to the future commercial advantages that would accrue should his
enterprise continue and succeed. She concluded that the appellant did not
intend to give his marijuana away when his research no longer required it."

Ryan concluded that she could not find the sentencing judge's findings
unreasonable, or that the judge erred in fact or in principle.

"I cannot say that the sentence is unfit."

Justice A.D. Thackray and Justice P.D. Lowry agreed

Following the raid two years ago, the head of the B.C. Compassion Club
Society alleged that the raid had been set up by then Health Minister Allan
Rock.

Society founder Hilary Black was in the midst of a telephone conversation
with Rock when she learned of the raid.

Hornby's company, Hedron Analytical Inc., which conducts chemical analyses
of herbal preparations, held a Health Canada licence to conduct analyses on
plant samples of cannabis and that this analysis was permitted to take
place at an address in downtown Vancouver.

The licence did not permit the production of marijuana.

"Yet for some reason, the licence was framed and hung in the greenhouse on
the Richmond property."