Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007 Guelph Mercury Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guelphmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418
Author: Scott Tracey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marco+Renda
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal - Canada)

MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO POT-BY-POST PLAN

Plea Crafted to Protect Grower's Licence

A medical marijuana crusader accused of mailing pot to fellow users 
in the United States and Britain pleaded guilty yesterday to 
committing mischief by using Canada Post services "without proper authority."

Following Marco Renda's plea, federal prosecutor David Doney asked 
the court to withdraw three counts each of trafficking and exporting 
a controlled substance and a single count of possession of a 
controlled substance.

Justice Walter Gonet gave Renda, 47, formerly of the Mount Forest 
area, a conditional discharge and put the man on probation for two years.

Outside court, Renda's lawyer, Leora Shemesh, said the plea was 
carefully crafted to protect her client's Health Canada licence, 
which allows Renda to possess and grow marijuana.

He uses the drug to alleviate the symptoms of hepatitis C.

Shemesh said if Renda had pleaded guilty to any drug-related counts 
it could have cost him his federal exemption from marijuana laws.

"The court was compassionate with that and so was the Crown," Shemesh 
said, noting the plea to mischief was hammered out between the judge 
and lawyers for both sides during a series of pretrial meetings.

"His honour was aware of not wanting to affect his licence," Shemesh 
said. "It was a compassionate resolution."

Renda was accused of mailing 43 packages of marijuana to people in 
the U.S. and United Kingdom during March 2005.

He was arrested April 13, 2005, when members of the Ontario 
Provincial Police's drug enforcement section executed a warrant at 
his home in Southgate Township, northeast of Mount Forest.

In entering his plea yesterday, Renda admitted only that he used the 
postal service to send out "plant materials."

Shemesh said as well as the compassionate reasons to conclude the 
case, the Crown might have had difficulty proving its case because of 
"continuity issues" surrounding Canada Post's handling of the 
packages, including who had authority to open them.

Renda has since moved to Toronto, where he publishes Treating 
Yourself magazine, billed as "a journal for patients by patients."

He said the resolution of the charges "gives me some breathing room 
to get back to what I was doing, which is educating the uninformed to 
the value of medical marijuana."

Renda said he also intends to give away marijuana seeds through his 
website (treatingyourself.com) and to continue lobbying Health Canada 
to provide free marijuana to those who qualify to legally possess it.

The federal government pays Prairie Plant Systems to grow marijuana 
in an old mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man., which is then provided, at a 
cost, to exempted people. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake