Pubdate: Sat, 01 Dec 2007
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2007 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://thechronicleherald.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Tom McCoag, Amherst Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

POT GROWER BUSTED AGAIN

Maccan Area Man Says He Will Continue To Create 'Cure For Cancer'

AMHERST - A Maccan area man who says his marijuana-based paste cures 
cancer was arrested again Friday, moments after his sentencing 
hearing in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on previous charges was postponed.

"What's the world coming to when a man who has the cure for cancer 
keeps getting arrested?" Rick Simpson said to reporters as two 
plainclothes Amherst police officers escorted him to the police 
station across the street from the courthouse.

"It's a crazy world," he said, shaking his head.

Mr. Simpson was to be sentenced Friday for possessing, unlawfully 
producing and trafficking marijuana, but Justice Felix Cacchione 
postponed the hearing because Mr. Simpson, who represented himself at 
trial, has now retained a lawyer. Court officials said Halifax lawyer 
Duncan Beveridge will be representing Mr. Simpson, but he was not in 
court Friday.

Justice Cacchione postponed the sentencing until Jan. 18 and was in 
the process of adjourning the hearing when Crown attorney Paul 
Drysdale interrupted him to say that Mr. Simpson would be arrested 
again as soon as he stepped out of the courtroom.

Mr. Simpson was startled and told the court he had not been made 
aware of his pending arrest.

"I told you I would continue" producing the marijuana paste, he told 
the judge. "People have to be supplied with this cure."

After a five-day jury trial in September, Mr. Simpson was found 
guilty of possessing less than three kilograms of 
tetrahydrocannabinol for the purpose of trafficking, producing 
marijuana and possessing less than 30 grams of marijuana.

Tetrahydrocannabinol is commonly referred to as THC, the main 
psychoactive substance in marijuana.

He was charged after an Aug. 3, 2005, RCMP raid on his Little Forks 
Road property that netted 1,190 plants. A police marijuana expert 
testified that many plants could create 83,300 grams of smokable 
marijuana, enough to last a heavy user for 76 years.

At trial, Mr. Simpson admitted to possessing and growing marijuana on 
his property and to giving the oil he created from the plant to 
people suffering from a variety of ailments ranging from cankers to cancer.

After the jury found him guilty, Mr. Simpson urged Justice Cacchione 
to jail him immediately because he vowed to continue "treating his patients."

Mr. Simpson is to be arraigned Monday in Amherst provincial court on 
the new trafficking charge.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom