NOVA SCOTIA JUDGE RULES AGAINST MAN WHO WANTS TO SMOKE MEDICINAL POT IN PRISON

HALIFAX - In an unusual legal case, a Nova Scotia judge ruled Tuesday that
the rights of a man who uses marijuana to treat chronic pain would not be
violated if he were sent to prison and cut off from his steady supply of
the drug.

Michael Patriquen, 49, of Halifax failed to convince the Supreme Court
justice that she should delay sentencing him for drug trafficking so he
could argue in a special hearing that his charter rights would be trampled
if he were sent to a federal penitentiary and denied access to medicinal
marijuana.

Patriquen, who was convicted in 2000, received a federal exemption this
year to grow and possess a certain amount of the drug prescribed to him to
treat neck pain caused by a car accident three years ago.

His lawyer said he should not be sentenced until Ottawa can make legal
medicinal marijuana available to him while her serves a six-year sentence
for selling the drug in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

But Justice Suzanne Hood ruled Tuesday that Patriquen's rights haven't been
violated because he has yet to begin serving his sentence. Only then, when
he is deprived access to marijuana, could there be evidence proving his
rights had been denied.

"It is speculative to say at this point that Corrections Canada will
violate Mr. Patriquen's rights," Hood said in a half-hour reading of her
decision before sentencing him to six years in prison.

"There is no evidence that a charter breach will occur."

The dismissal caused an uproar in the courtroom as Patriquen's wife,
Melanie Stephen, jumped to her feet and bellowed to the judge that she had
sentenced her husband too harshly.

"God have mercy on your soul, your honour," she screamed. She began to sob
as security guards dragged her from the room. "This is not Iraq or China."

Crown lawyers argued Patriquen, who has a long criminal record involving
drugs, was merely trying to delay his sentencing. Crown attorney James
Martin said he should file a complaint with the Federal Court, which Hood
ruled has the jurisdiction to address the issue.

In a brief statement to the court after he was sentenced, Patriquen called
the recommendation ridiculous since the Correctional Service of Canada has
no supply of marijuana it can give to prisoners, even if they have
exemptions or medical prescriptions for the drug.

"They can't give me something they don't have," said Patriquen, a short,
stocky man with a yellow-stained moustache.

"I have been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment at your hand," he
said angrily to Hood.

Chantal Albert, a spokeswoman with the Correctional Service, said
Patriquen's health needs would be assessed, but there is little they could
do for him since there is no legal supply of the drug.

"Our bottom line now is that we have no legal source to get marijuana and,
of course, we will not try to obtain it illegally," she said from Moncton, N.B.

The case, which dates back to 1999 when the investigation began, is thought
to be one of the first in the country to challenge the courts over the
availability of medical marijuana for convicted criminals.

Albert said there are no other offenders in the system who hold exemptions.

It is expected Patriquen will file a complaint with the Federal Court once
he is in a federal prison and is denied marijuana. But even if the court
agrees he is entitled to receive a steady supply of the drug, it could be
years before it is made available by Ottawa.

The federal Health Department is hoping in late fall or early winter to
conduct clinical trials on research-grade marijuana being grown at federal
sites in Flin Flon, Man.

Health Minister Anne McLellan refuted suggestions recently that she is
backing away from her plan to distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Patriquen was involved in large selling and growing operations that
stretched from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. The RCMP began a surveillance
operation on Patriquen and several associates in 1999, and often found
large amounts of cash stashed in secret compartments in cars, home stereos
and suitcases.

In March 1999, officers were installing a tracking device on his car when
they discovered six bundles of cash totalling $26,000. On another occasion
when he was returning to Halifax from St. John's, Nfld., $100,000 was found
in his luggage. He was finally charged in 2000 after hundreds of marijuana
plants were seized from the homes of co-conspirators and $13,000 was taken
from his house.

The case could have wide implications for the more than 800 people in the
country who have special exemptions to grow and possess marijuana. It could
influence the way a judge handles sentencing if they are brought up on
criminal charges.