Pubdate: Wed, 22 Oct 2008
Source: Express (CN BC)
Page: 5
Copyright: 2008 Kootenay Express Communication
Contact:  http://www.expressnews.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2374
Author: Chris Shepherd
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Holy+Smoke

MESSAGE SENT

Provincial Court Judge Gives Paul Defelice One Year in Jail to Send a 
Message to Community About Drug Trafficking

They argued they provided a necessary service to a town with a 
reputation for smoking pot, but the sentence handed out to the first 
of four men found guilty of selling marijuana from their downtown 
business showed the judge thought the community could do without it.

Paul DeFelice, co-owner of the Holy Smoke Culture Shop, was given a 
one-year jail sentence despite arguing he provided untainted 
marijuana in a safe environment and didn't sell to minors. DeFelice, 
co-owner Alan Middlemiss and their associates, Kelsey Stratas and 
Akka Annis, were found guilty in provincial court of selling 
marijuana from the store which specializes in drug paraphernalia and 
features a 10-foot mural of a pot leaf on the side of their building.

Annis, who had no previous record, was given 40 days in prison to be 
served over weekends. Stratas and Middlemiss will be sentenced in December.

Prosecutor Robert Brown asked for nine to 12 months for DeFelice, 
Middlemiss and Stratas, who all have previous drug-related 
convictions. Brown said the judge had found the four men guilty of 
selling drugs in an organized fashion and they had exhibited little, 
if any, remorse.

"There has to be consequences or else it's going to happen again in 
this community," Brown told the judge.

As he handed out the sentence, Judge Donald Sperry agreed with the 
prosecutor and said DeFelice and the community had to be deterred 
from selling drugs.

The four had advanced a necessity defence, an argument that says 
breaking the law is acceptable when the crime prevents greater harm. 
According to defence lawyer Don Skogstad, the defence had never been 
applied to a drug trafficking case.

During the trial in May, the four men, self-styled the Holy Smoke 
Four, didn't deny the charges they sold marijuana to undercover 
police officers in 2006.

The defendants testified they didn't sell pot to minors, ensured the 
drugs were pure by smoking it themselves, and provided a safe place 
for people to buy the drug. They also said they sold marijuana to 
people who needed the drug to deal with medical conditions.

The two owners had strongly advocated marijuana use while on the 
stand and DeFelice said he thought marijuana should be sold much like 
alcohol and tobacco.

The arrangement, where Holy Smoke had a section of the store set off 
for marijuana sales, came about gradually. DeFelice had said it was 
partly in response to drug dealers who sold pot in a nearby park.

Judge Sperry had quickly dismissed their defence when he found them 
guilty in September and said the defendants were only acting in their 
own interest. "Taking heat off the store is self-service, not 
community service."

Speaking after the sentencing, Annis said he thought the group's drug 
advocacy played a role in DeFelice's sentence.

"I think we are paying the price for our public position."

Speaking after the trial, Skogstad, the defence lawyer, said polls 
have shown Canadian society favours decriminalizing marijuana.

"Nelson would be, if anything, more disposed to that view. We'll see 
what the Court of Appeal has to say." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake