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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Canada BC: Pot In Jail Not Harmful, Judge Says
Vancouver Sun (Canada)
Friday 19 Jan 2001 Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/ Author: Neal Hall POT IN JAIL NOT HARMFUL, JUDGE SAYS Sentence Reduced For Man Who Smuggled Marijuana Into Prison There is nothing to suggest that marijuana inside prisons causes any particular harm, a B.C. Appeal court judge noted Thursday. In ruling to reduce the sentence of a Vancouver area man caught smuggling a half-ounce of marijuana to a friend inside a Fraser Valley prison, Justice Mary Southin decided to allow the appeal of Paul Scott Charlish and reduce his six-month jail sentence to a four-month conditional sentence, to be served in the community. "The learned [trial] judge rested on deterrence, but there is nothing in the record that visitors are frequently taking or attempting to take marijuana into prisons, for that matter, if marijuana is getting into prisons, that any particular harm thereby results," Southin noted in written reasons for judgement released this week. Southin said it was a non-violent crime and felt "more harm than good will be done to this applicant by locking him up. On the material before the Court, I doubt that he will ever again be so foolish as to do what he did on the occasion in question." Charlish, 31, was charged with trafficking marijuana after he was caught on Aug. 11, 1998, passing 14 grams of pot to his friend, Curtis Bradley Rabochenko, a prisoner of Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford serving a two-year sentence for a robbery conviction. "There is no evidence that this was a commercial transaction," Southin noted. "I proceed on the footing the marijuana was a gift." She added: "I infer that the accused committed this offence because he believes there is some merit in the old adage that a friend in need is a friend indeed." Charlish had no previous criminal record, works full-time and had been a friend of Rabochenko since before high school. The incident occurred in the visitor's room of the prison. The Crown prosecutor in the case had asked for a three-month sentence but the trial judge felt that would be inadequate, so imposed a six-month jail sentence with a recommendation that it be served on electronic monitoring. Southin also suggested judges should stop making such recommendations because they have no statutory authority to do so. "While I should like to think that those in charge of classification respect judicial recommendations, I am doubtful about the worth of such recommendations because if the recommendation is not honoured, not only will a prisoner have a legitimate sense of grievance, but also the judicial office is demeaned."
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