Pubdate: Mon, 22 Jan 2007
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2007 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Daryl Slade, Calgary Herald

MAN SPARED JAIL FOR PAIN RELIEF GROW OPS

A former Calgary man has been handed a conditional jail sentence 
after police raided his home on two separate occasions five years ago 
and found 577 marijuana plants that police estimated as being worth 
up to $800,000 on the street.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Beth Hughes said she did not send Mark 
James Maki, 43, to jail because of the unique circumstances of the 
case. Instead, she placed him under house arrest for the first year 
of a sentence of two years less a day and prohibited him from 
possessing any illicit drugs.

Hughes said the grow operations discovered in October 2001 and 
February 2002 in Maki's home on Madigan Drive N.E. were non-profit 
and to be used for a Compassion Club to relieve pain for people with 
serious illnesses such as multiple sclerosis.

She also took into account that Maki, who now lives in Coquitlam, 
B.C., was being sentenced five years after the bust and he had taken 
great steps to rehabilitate himself.

Crown prosecutor Susan Kennedy had sought incarceration, particularly 
because of the large volume of marijuana found. She also noted a 
shotgun was seized, an item often used to protect grow ops.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine