Pubdate: Tue, 14 May 2002
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Forum: http://forums.canada.com/~calgary
Author: Jason van Rassel

POT FARMER CLAIMS CROP MEANT FOR USE BY TERMINALLY ILL

Activist Says Police Should 'Leave Sick Alone'

Seven hundred pot plants seized by the RCMP were meant to help 
terminally ill patients, claims the man charged in connection with 
the operation.

Randy Newsham, 35, was charged with cultivation of a controlled 
substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking after 
Mounties found the plants in his home near Rumsey, about 130 
kilometres northeast of Calgary.

The RCMP estimated the crop's value at $500,000, but Newsham said the 
pot was never going to be sold on the street and was worth far less.

"They've blown it way out of proportion," Newsham said from the 
Calgary Remand Centre, where he's been held on $10,000 bail since his 
May 2 arrest.

Newsham doesn't deny growing the pot, but said it was intended for a 
non-profit foundation run by Calgary medicinal marijuana activist 
Grant Krieger.

Krieger, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and won a five-year 
legal battle to smoke marijuana, said he supplies more than 100 
people across Canada with the drug.

Regulations passed by Health Canada last year allow applicants to 
possess or grow their own marijuana if they can prove their pain 
can't be treated with other drugs.

The problem, Krieger said, is many sufferers like him are too sick to 
grow their own supply and the regulations drive people into the risky 
business of buying "crap" from street-level dealers.

Krieger said he is trying to assure a safe supply exists for 
terminally ill patients, but the police shut down every person he's 
hired to grow pot for him.

"Let me help people," he said.

"I wish they'd just stop and leave the sick alone."

Krieger said most of the plants seized by police were still seedlings 
and worth about $10,000 -- a fraction of the value the RCMP placed on 
them.

Still, there were three kilograms of dried marijuana ready for 
distribution and the police confiscated about $20,000 worth of 
growing equipment, Krieger said.

"It hurts," he said of the bust.

"It takes a lot of time to set (grow operations) up and a lot of money."

Health Canada had contracted a private company to grow 600 kilograms 
of marijuana to be used in clinical trials, but federal officials 
announced last week the supply is riddled with impurities.

"The government doesn't know what it's doing," Krieger said.

"They've hung us all out to dry."

Meanwhile, Newsham remains in custody while Krieger and supporters 
are trying to raise bail money.

Police also charged Newsham's roommate, John Daniel MacVicar, in 
connection with the bust. He is free on $750 bail.
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