COPS NO DOPES, GIVE MAN'S POT BACK

Ontario Provincial Police made a special delivery of about 30
marijuana plants to pot activist Rob Brown yesterday -- 2 1/2 months
after it was stolen from his property.

The Killaloe-area cancer sufferer says police did a good job taking care
of his pot plants, but he's still upset it took so long to get them back.

Brown, who sufferers from cancer and hepatitis C and has a medical
exemption that allows him to harvest and possess the controlled substance,
has been fighting to have his "medicine" returned to him since police
recovered it Sept. 20.

Police were issued with a court order on Wednesday to return the plants but
since Brown doesn't have a legal right to carry such a large quantity, he
had to wait until yesterday when police could drop it off.

Worried that the plants would no longer have any beneficial properties,
Brown had considered filing a lawsuit but was pleasantly surprised to find
his stash in fairly good shape.

Brown remains very upset with how his case was handled.

"I think it's absolutely insane that this situation has been carried to
this extent," he said. "If somebody had broken into an old-age home and had
stolen medicine, it would have been returned a long time ago without the
expense of having to go through proceedings in court and hiring a lawyer."

Staff Sgt. Jim Graham, however, said the circumstances were a little
different in this case.

"A stereo and a TV, anybody can lawfully possess those items. When it comes
to marijuana plants, not everybody can lawfully possess those items," he said.

"A court decision had to be made whether he was lawfully allowed to have
that returned to him or not."