COURT ASKED FOR POT EXEMPTION

A Halifax-area man will ask a Nova Scotia court next week to let him
grow pot for his own medicinal use and exempt him from
prosecution.

On Monday, John Thomas Cook, 38, filed a Charter of Rights and
Freedoms application with Nova Scotia Supreme Court asking it to order
the federal Crown not prosecute him on future marijuana possession
charges.

"Over the years I have bought cannabis off the street but it is very
expensive and poses serious risks such as apprehension, theft or
violence from the person from the people I am forced to deal with,"
Mr. Cook stated in court documents. "Being a pensioner, I cannot
afford to purchase my prescription cannabis but I can produce a clean,
safe supply of cannabis."

He also wants the court to strike down possession laws altogether.

Mr. Cook suffers from chronic back and neck pain from two work-related
accidents.

"I continue to derive very substantial medical benefits from cannabis
to this day," Mr. Cook, who is representing himself, wrote in the
court documents. "I have the full backing of my general practitioner
for my request for Tylenol 3s and cannabis."

Mr. Cook has applied for but not received a medical exemption for the
use of marijuana from Ottawa.

"I'm still waiting to get into the pain to have a specialist to sign
off on my application which expired in July of last year," he said in
an interview Tuesday.

On March 24, federal Crown attorney Tim McLaughlin stayed charges
against Mr. Cook of marijuana production (12 plants) and possession of
less than 30 grams in July 2001.

Mr. Cook says the plants were being grown for his own medicinal
use.

"What's to clear up criminally is that I shouldn't have been charged
in the first place because I use it medically which (has) already been
covered under the charter."

Mr. Cook also wants items police seized from his home returned, and to
be compensated for the lights, pots, watering cans and 12 destroyed
plants, all of which he estimates to be worth between
$25,000-$38,000.

The Crown advised RCMP that they can return certain items to Mr. Cook
as long as they are not contraband.

How the court will respond to Mr. Cook's court application at this
point "remains to be seen" Justice Department spokesman Glenn
Chamberlain said.

Mr. Cook's case is one of several stayed within the last year because
each accused had been busted by Const. Joseph Daniel (Danny) Ryan, a
suspended member of the Tantallon RCMP who is charged with trafficking
marijuana.

"Ultimately, at the end of it, there was no reasonable prospect of
conviction with prospect of conviction with respect to Const Ryan's
involvement," Mr. McLaughlin said Tuesday, "Also, another witness (in
Cook's case) had also transferred away."

Const. Ryan is also accused of breach of trust and stealing from a man
he busted.

His two-day preliminary inquiry begins June 16 in Halifax provincial
court.