Pubdate: Fri, 08 Mar 2013
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://news.guelphmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418
Author: Vik Kirsch
Page 3

DRUG DEALER SAYS HE TRIED TO HELP

GUELPH - Maxim "Max" Popovitch said in court Thursday he was a drug 
dealer for the best reason - to provide ailing individuals with 
medical marijuana to ease their pain.

Federal prosecutor David Doney, however, suggested the motivation was 
pure greed, noting the 29-year-old Orangeville resident had a 
lucrative business until he was caught.

"I didn't want to get rich from this," Popovitch, the son of a 
construction company owner, countered in Guelph Superior Court on 
Thursday, where he was to be sentenced after pleading guilty last 
December to possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of 
trafficking and breach of probation.

In September 2011 in Erin Township, Wellington OPP pulled over his 
2010 Toyota truck and found 6.4 kilograms of pot in 24 vacuum-sealed, 
tightly bound packages with a street value of $125,000. They also 
found and confiscated $63,820 in cash and three cellphones.

Popovitch told the court he was primarily supplying so-called 
compassion clubs who assist the sick in obtaining high-quality 
medical marijuana through licensing with Health Canada.

Defence lawyer Ron Marzel called several witnesses Thursday to 
testify on Popovitch's behalf in the lengthy sentencing hearing, men 
who said they benefited greatly from medical marijuana, some of it 
supplied by Popovitch.

In the afternoon, Justice Bruce Durno adjourned sentencing to April 
11 at 2:30 p.m. Marzel said he'd likely require several hours for his 
closing argument, with Doney saying his final comments would be 
considerably shorter.

In the witness box, Popovitch said doctors discovered a brain tumour 
in 2004. He then went through surgery to have it removed. He's 
suffered from migraines ever since and conventional pain killers 
"would just knock me out."

He discovered top-quality pot would ease the symptoms and "made me feel good."

But it was costing him up to $2,000 a month to self-medicate, he said.

"I decided to start selling ... to support my medical use," he said. 
"People found out pretty quick and I started selling more of it."

He was arrested in 2009 at a British Columbia airport when he was 
found carrying $40,000 in cash in his suitcase. He admitted to 
authorities he'd been selling pot and swore to stop.

"I quit but I was still medicating."

He appeared, by coincidence, before Justice Durno in 2011, who 
sentenced him to nine months in jail, followed by probation, for 
money laundering in the arrest in the West Coast.

Popovitch said he subsequently applied to Health Canada for a licence 
to self-medicate by using medical marijuana. He got that licence in 
August 2011 and initially grew 73 pot plants in a grow room he set up 
in a garage attached to his residence.

"People think it's easy to grow marijuana, but it's not," he said, 
noting he invested tens of thousands of dollars for equipment and 
supplies. He soon found he'd produced more pot than he needed and 
started making it available to others suffering from pain like he 
was, primarily through two Toronto compassion clubs.

Doney said his third crop, harvested before the bust, netted roughly 
$46,000 in profit, but Popovitch said he was reinvesting a 
significant portion of this to upgrade his equipment and refine his 
growing techniques.

Cancer victims Richard Sinclair, 63, and John Stott, 68, as well as 
diabetic amputee William Johnston, 51, testified Thursday to the 
benefits of medical marijuana in easing their ongoing pain and 
discomfort after meeting Popovitch, whom they described in glowing 
terms as an altruistic individual who genuinely wanted to help them 
and others like them.

Popovitch said he hasn't sold any marijuana since the most recent bust.

"Are you going to sell again?" Marzel asked him.

"Absolutely not," Popovitch responded.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom