Pubdate: Tue, 06 May 2008
Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Nelson Daily News
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/288
Author: Sara Newham
Note: The newspaper does not have an active website.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/holy+smoke
Dr. Bob's Homepage: http://www.uccs.edu/~rmelamed/Homepage/

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED SAYS HOLY SMOKE TEAM

It's a waiting game for the four accused in the Holy Smoke drug
trafficking trial that took place last week.

Written arguments and replies will be made during the summer with a
final ruling expected no sooner than September 26. But while no one
may be certain of the outcome the defense team said it was pleased all
of its evidence was allowed during the potentially-landmark case
despite repeated objections by the Crown over the relevancy of
testimonies.

"I think we did a good job of at least entering all the evidence we
wanted to enter.  The judge was really good about letting us have
every witness that we wanted," said Paul DeFelice, one of three Holy
Smoke co-owners and four accused of trafficking cannabis.  "The crown
tried to argue away some of them but the judge allowed them to make
their testimony."

On Monday, the Crown submitted its evidence that four undercover
police officers from the Lower Mainland purchased various drugs from
the store on June 2 and 3 and July 12 and 13 in 2006.  Prosecutor Rob
Brown was not available for comment.

The defense meanwhile did not contest the facts of the case and began
to argue its defense of necessity and reverse gateway theory. They
claim they were doing more good than harm and sold only to people 19
and over. They also argued that marijuana actually helps people stop
or reduce their consumption of so-called 'hard' drugs, alcohol, and
tobacco.

"We know it's illegal but you know sometimes the law is better off
broken than not broken.  That's called necessity. That's an age-old
defense, common-law.  It's not even set out in the statutes.  It's
preserved in the statutes.  It's preserved in the statutes but it's a
common law defense. It's a common sense defense as well," said defense
lawyer Donald Skogstad, comparing the situation to that of a
15-year-old boy who illegally gets behind the wheel of the family car
to seek medical help after his Dad severely injures himself while out
camping in the woods.

"There's rare occasions when it can be used. We think this is one of
them, in Nelson with these kind of people, in this climate."

Skogstad was particularly pleased with the testimony of U.S. expert
Dr. Robert Melamede who testified Thursday on the medical benefits of
cannabis and on the reverse gateway theory.

"He [Melamede] went far beyond what our fondest hopes had been, he
went beyond those. He was an excellent witness and that's because he's
one of the world's leading experts on this and is obviously a
brilliant man, very forthcoming and he can remember things and he can
help us with a lot but I now need to read all that," said Skogstad.

Melamede's complex, scientific explanation prompted Judge Don Sperry
to quip that his transcriber would hate him when he ordered the
transcript of the testimony because of all the scientific words
Melamede mentioned.

Skogstad said he would read the transcript before presenting his
written argument to the court for review by Sperry.  He added that he
was surprised that the Crown did not bother calling an expert.

"In other trials they have called their own experts but...this allows
me to say that our expert's evidence is undisputed," he said.

Holy Smoke co-owner and co-accused Alan Middlemiss meanwhile was
surprised by the cost to bust and prosecute the four men.

"I think it was a circus in the sense that the amount of money that
went into this thing," he said, noting the costs of flying four police
officers from the Lower Mainland and Victoria and having them stay in
hotels as well as the cost of flying a prosecutor from Vancouver to
assist the local Crown Counsel.

He said the local Crown could have done the job himself.

"The local Crown is an absolute court master and anyone that's been in
court in Nelson knows that Rob Brown is an amazing Crown."

Middlemiss said the highlight of the trial for him was hearing the
local witnesses testify to the benefits they say they received from
consuming cannabis.

"I know that the judge received it well as a person and maybe as a
judge, he might find us guilty, but I think Don Sperry the person
would find us not guilty in a second," presumed Middlemiss, who said
they spent $40,000 to pay for their defense.

"Basically the biggest stress right now is going to jail and trying to
stay out of harms way in jail from being attacked from other inmates
and all the other shenanigans that go on," he said.

DeFelice said he was relieved and was trying to stay
positive.

"I'm really counting on our community being behind us whether they
ruled against us or not, I'm hoping the community at least realizes
that we did our best, we were honest, we were transparent, we were
trying to look after their best interests but really...we're trying to
model a better way and I think we successfully did that."

When asked if the Holy Smoke had continued its "designated dealer"
program following the bust, DeFelice was mum.

"I'm under conditions to not even be in the presence of marijuana and I'm a
bit of a Sgt. Schultz right now in that I don't know nothing, I don't see
nothing. I don't even really know.  I'm just running the retail side of the
store at this point."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin