Source: London Free Press (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html
Pubdate: Thu, 2 Apr 1998
Author: Don Murray -- Free Press Court Reporter

POT TRIAL OF MS SUFFERER ON HOLD UNTIL RULING ON MEDICAL DEFENCE

Mindful that a milestone marijuana-as-medicine case is working its way
toward the Ontario Court of Appeal this fall, a judge has postponed the
trial of London's Lynn Harichy.

Harichy, 36, was to go on trial April 27 on a single charge of possessing
marijuana, which she insists she needs to ease the spasms and pain of
multiple sclerosis.

TOP COURT CASE

On Wednesday, Judge Alan Baker of Ontario Court, provincial division, said
he wasn't willing to try Harichy's case until the province's top court has
ruled on the same medical defence issue.

Federal prosecutor Bill Buchner said the Crown agrees to the adjournment
sought by the defence team.

Harichy's four-day trial is now set for Nov. 17 to 19 and Nov. 23.
Meanwhile, the top court will hear the Crown appeal of the case of a
Toronto man who came out on top in a court battle after his pot-growing
operation was busted in 1996.

In a precedent-setting Charter of Rights and Freedoms case, a Toronto judge
ruled Terry Parker had a medical need to smoke marijuana as treatment for
epilepsy, and the best way for him to obtain it was to grow it.

The judge stayed charges of cultivating and possession against Parker, 42,
but convicted him of a trafficking charge because he admitted giving joints
to other seizure sufferers. He was sentenced to time served and put on
probation for a year.

The court also ordered police to return three confiscated marijuana plants
to Parker, but they apparently had already been destroyed.

APPEAL IN CLAY CASE

Also bound for the Court of Appeal is the case of former Londoner
Christopher Clay, who was found guilty of possessing and selling marijuana
after a highly publicized trial last summer.

Clay, now living in Vancouver, is a crusader for the legalization of pot,
arguing that keeping it a criminal substance violates the Charter.

Copyright (c) 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.