Pubdate: Fri, 07 Jan 2005
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Richard Watts

SWEET TREATS PRESENTED AS EVIDENCE IN TRIAL OF MEDICAL POT CHAMPION

Cookies --peanut butter, chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin -- were entered 
as evidence Thursday in the trial of Victoria medical marijuana activist 
Ted Smith.

Victoria Const. Leslie Whittaker brought in the cookies, 44 in total, in 
plastic Tupperware-style containers.

Whittaker also came in with reports from Health Canada showing the cookies 
tested positive for cannabis resin and in one case (the oatmeal raisin) for 
something called tetrahydracannabinol.

Along with cookies she also produced bottles of massage oil, jars of salve 
and capsules of Ryanol. There were also more documents showing all three 
substances tested positive for cannabis resin.

The products were seized during a March 21, 2002, Victoria police search of 
the Cannabis Buyer's Club, then known as Ted's Books, on Johnson Street.

The club is what is known as a compassion club, supplying marijuana to 
people suffering from medical conditions or disabilities. Smith, founder of 
the club, is charged with possession of cannabis resin for the purpose of 
trafficking.

Smith took the stand in his own defence and said the cookies, the massage 
oils, the salve and Ryanol were all made by infusing various oils, or 
butter, with marijuana leaves.

He entered a herbal cook book as evidence to show the procedure where 
marijuana leaves were steeped in various oils and heated in a double 
boiler. Later, they were filtered and allowed to cool.

Smith's testimony revealed these marijuana-infused oils, or butter 
depending on the baker's recipe, were later used to make the cookies. These 
were then sold to members for $1 each.

"The cookies are quite large. They have good ingredients. They are quite 
nutritious," said Smith.

The marijuana-infused olive oil was used to make massage oil. In order to 
make a salve, it was mixed with bees wax to make it harder.

The Ryanol capsules are marijuana infused grape seed oil, mixed with a soy 
extract, which is poured into capsules.

All products are sold to club members to ease a variety of symptoms, said 
Smith.

Defence witnesses testified they were club members and used the various 
edible or topical products to help symptoms from conditions ranging from 
hepatitis C to neural conditions.

One, Stephen Kindred, 46, testified he is a long time sufferer of spinal 
arthritis who is also allergic to anti-inflammatories and pain killers.

"The only relief I have been able to find is from the Ryanol," said Kindred.

He said he has found four Ryanol capsules a day works best. He has also 
used the massage oil on a painful, swollen elbow with enough success to 
cancel a surgery. And he uses it on his feet.

"The only way I can walk each day is to use the oil on my feet," said Kindred.

This trial is the second time Smith has been in court because of his 
compassion-club activities.

In September, provincial court Judge Loretta Chaperon stayed a marijuana 
charge against Smith, saying it was laid at a time when government had 
approved marijuana as medicine but failed to provide a source. That charge 
arose from a police search only three months prior to the search which 
yielded the cookies.

Prompted by Chaperon's decision in the latest trial, the Crown stayed a 
marijuana charge but still proceeded with the cannabis resin charge.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman