Pubdate: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS) Copyright: 2005 The Halifax Herald Limited Contact: http://thechronicleherald.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180 Author: Jocelyn Bethune Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) POT-GROWING SENIOR GETS CONDITIONAL SENTENCE BADDECK - A teetotalling senior who was handed a conditional sentence Friday for growing marijuana in his basement said he was cultivating the estimated $30,000 worth of weed as a hobby. "It was a challenge, really, to see if I could grow it. I was reading a lot about it," Lawrence Cook, 67, said after his court appearance. "I never sold it. I wouldn't know how to sell it or what to sell it for. I didn't even know if it was any good." Mr. Cook said he doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs. The court heard that in June, a Nova Scotia Power employee noticed illegal jumpers, used to divert electricity illegally, in the eaves of Mr. Cook's South Harbour home. The power company returned in July with RCMP officers and a search warrant. Once inside, they found a secret doorway behind some shelving and discovered a grow operation with 60 mature marijuana plants and three garbage bags of plant buds. Mr. Cook's lawyer, David Ianetti, told the court that the senior is an upstanding citizen and a hard worker with no previous run-ins with the law. He and his wife operated a restaurant in South Harbour for over 20 years, and when his wife died suddenly in 2002, Mr. Cook was left with a pension of only $14,000 a year. He saw the grow op as a way to make extra money, Mr. Ianetti said. "This was an ill-thought-out foray into the drug world," the lawyer said. Judge Peter Ross called the case "a strange one." "This is unusual and rather difficult to understand," he told Mr. Cook, who stood before the court dressed in a dark blue blazer and dress pants. "You don't strike me as one without scruples. Perhaps you didn't think this was all that bad. There are changing norms in our society toward marijuana, but that debate is for the parliamentarians, not for you and I. I am here to uphold the law and you are to obey it." Judge Ross accepted a joint recommendation for a conditional sentence that includes 12 months of house arrest. Mr. Cook has moved to Sydney and is allowed to leave his home for medical and legal appointments, church services and to travel to his South Harbour home to keep an eye on it. He is to forfeit all the equipment he used in the grow op and he owes Nova Scotia Power $2,448.49 for the estimated amount of electricity he used illegally over a four-month period. Asked after the sentencing why he chose to grow marijuana at this stage of his life, Mr. Cook said: "It was kind of stupid, I guess. I really didn't take into consideration the full legal ramifications of doing it. If I had, I wouldn't have done it. "I think I'll stick to making furniture and stained glass lamps." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake