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Mother Teresa-like caring behind pot club, court told
By admin | July 4, 2004
By Richard Watts
Times Colonist staff,
July 2, 2004.
Like Mother Tersa helping lepers in India, Ted Smith was compelled by compassion to sell marijuana to the sick of Victoria, a provincial court judge heard.
Defense lawyer Robert Moore-Stewart said compassion and altruism, which at their most extreme compelled Mother Teresa to help lepers, moved Smith to supply medical marijuana.
Smith’s “circumstances put him in touch with these individuals in need of medical marijuana,” said Moore-Stewart at Smith’s trial Wednesday. “He was compelled by altruism.”
Smith, 35, a long-time marijuana activist and Colby Budda, 30, are charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.
The charges stem from a Jan. 3, 2002 police raid on a Johnson Street storefront known then as Ted’s Books.
The store was what is commonly referred to as a compassion club. Marijuana was sold to people with chronic illnesses or conditions such as AIDS, Hepatitis C or arthritis.
Clients were requested for written proof of condition, like a doctor’s note. At the time of the arrest, the club had approximately 800 members.
Moore-Stewart also made comparisons between Smith’s medical-marijuana operations and Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s abortion clinic. Like Morgentaler, who broke the law by providing abortions to keep women from back-street clinics, Smith broke the law to save his clients from black-market drug dealers, he said.
“It was always about safety of the individuals involved and the safety of the supply,” said Moore-Stewart.
Crown counsel Michael Lawless, in his closing remarks, took issue with the level of medical proof Smith was demanding of customers.
Smith is not a doctor and therefore should not be taking it upon himself to prescribe a drug treatment like marijuana. Also Lawless said testimony indicates Smith’s club, despite assertions it was non-profit, was pulling in as much as $2000 a day.
Lawless said it was not all about compassion. “Mr. Smith lives off the profits of the store.”
“Mr. Smith is in fact the black market,” said Lawless. “He is acting outside the law.”
“That he has a political agenda to fashion is clear,” he said. “But that’s an issue for him to take up with Parliament while he acts in compliance with the law.”
Judge Loretta Chaperon reserves her verdict until July 15 (at 2pm in room 203).
But Chaperon indicates she is in accord with at least some of the arguments from Smith’s lawyer. She noted that at the time of Smith’s arrest, the federal government had approved marijuana for medicinal use. But it had yet to make any effort to provide a legal source of marijuana.
“It’s a catch-22 situation for these people,” said Chaperon.
Now, the fedreal government provides medical marijuana to patients via courier. The marijuana is grown in a mine shaft near Flin Flon, Manitoba but users have been critical of its quality.
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