Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jan 2001
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/
Address: 2615 12 Street N.E., Calgary, Alberta T2E 7W9
Email:  http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/home.html
Copyright: 2001 The Calgary Sun
Fax: (403) 250-4180
Pubdate: Thursday, January 11, 2001
Author: Kevin Martin

MAN TO FACE JAIL CELL WITH HELP OF POT

The controversial court ruling allowing drug crusader Grant Krieger to grow 
his own pot is being challenged by the prosecution.

But the Crown may be facing a more pressing dilemma in its fight with the 
Calgary man -- what to do when he shows up for jail with his own home-grown 
marijuana.

Krieger, 46, said yesterday he will begin serving a 22-day sentence on Jan. 
22 for not paying two fines for breaching probation.

At that time he'll bring with him more than 100 grams of pot -- which he 
needs to alleviate the pain he suffers from multiple sclerosis, he said.

PAIN UNBEARABLE

"I'm not going to jail in a wheelchair," said Krieger, who has been left 
unable to walk in the past when forced to refrain from taking marijuana to 
ease his pain. "Either I'm going to have more charges (for trying to take 
the drug into jail), or they're going to be letting me into the remand 
centre with a quarter pound of pot," he said.

Krieger won a landmark ruling last month allowing him to grow marijuana for 
his own use.

Justice Darlene Acton said it was "absurd" the federal government grants 
medical exemptions to its possession laws, but provides no way to get the drug.

"There is no legal source for cannabis," she noted. "The exemption triggers 
the absurdity that to obtain a product one has to take part in an illegal act."

Krieger said he can't have his marijuana delivered to his jail cell on a 
daily basis because that would make the courier guilty of a criminal offence.

"The laws are a mess," he noted.

Federal drug prosecutor Scott Couper yesterday filed an appeal of Acton's 
ruling.

Couper said he could not talk about the appeal because Krieger still faces 
an outstanding charge for possession of marijuana for the purpose of 
trafficking, set to go to trial in June.
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