Pubdate: Sun, 03 Sep 2000
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2000 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  2615 12 Street N.E., Calgary, Alberta T2E 7W9
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Author: Ethan Baron

POT ACTIVIST FUMING AT EASY RIDE

An American movie star hopped happily away from a Calgary drug charge, 
leaving a local pot activist reefer mad.  

Dennis Hopper pleaded guilty to a marijuana possession charge for 
bringing 12 grams of dope into Calgary's airport on a flight from L.A. 
in 1999.  

His high-profile Toronto lawyer Edward Greenspan on Friday won Hopper 
an absolute discharge in provincial court in Calgary.  

"He bought the system," said multiple sclerosis sufferer Grant Krieger, 
46, who has appeared in court more than 30 times on pot charges related 
to his medicinal marijuana use.  

"If you're rich enough, you can get off. Canada isn't supposed to be a 
land of double standards or preferences or prejudices."  

But he said it was the fact that Hopper's expensive lawyer got the 
actor off, rather than the discharge itself, that irked him.  

"Why should he have a criminal record over a little bit of pot?  You 
look at me, and I have a massive one, all for pot.  

"It allows me to walk."  

Nona Czayka was less irate and more hopeful over Hopper's legal coup.  

"Let's face it, it's who you know," said Czayka, director of Universal 
Compassion Centre at a fund-raiser for the pro-cannabis lobby group at 
Rosemont Community Centre in northwest Calgary.  

Hopper's penalty is quite different than people she's know who've had 
"their children removed, homes sold to pay for lawyers and criminal 
records" for similar offences.  

"Punishments are pretty harsh and out-of-line," said Czyaka, who treats 
her fibromyalgia, an inflammatory disease, with cannabis.  

"My life fell apart until cannabis. People think it's evil but it's 
not." 
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