Pubdate: Fri, 06 Sep 2002
Source: Daily News, The (CN NS)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/179
Author: Rachel Boomer, The Daily News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

PRISON WITHOUT POT 'CRUEL AND UNUSUAL'

A Middle Sackville man who smokes pot to relieve neck pain argued yesterday 
it would be cruel to send him to a federal prison until he can smoke his 
painkiller of choice behind bars.

In what could be a groundbreaking case for those in favour of the medical 
use of marijuana, Michael Ronald Patriquen, 49, has asked the Nova Scotia 
Supreme Court to delay his sentencing until the federal government finishes 
its clinical trials of marijuana and is ready to distribute it.

Patriquen received permits to possess and grow marijuana in July. He smokes 
two grams of pot daily to dull the pain caused by a damaged nerve in his 
neck, caused by a 1999 car accident.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of growing and selling marijuana before 
receiving his permits.

"I don't want to go and sit in a little eight-by-four concrete room with no 
medicine and no pain relief," Patriquen told reporters, calling the idea 
"cruel and unusual punishment."

Yesterday, Patriquen's lawyer, Warren Zimmer, argued sending Patriquen to 
jail would violate his charter rights, because he wouldn't be able to grow 
his own medicinal marijuana or buy it on the street.

"When Mr. Patriquen is sentenced, he will be deprived of the only supply 
available to him," Zimmer said.

"You're putting him in a set of circumstances where he's lost any access to 
the medicine to which he's entitled."

But Justice Suzanne Hood pointed out that despite jailhouse rules, it's not 
impossible to get drugs behind bars.

Hood will decide Tuesday whether to hear Patriquen's arguments further. If 
she rules against him, he'll be sentenced that day.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager