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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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CN BC: Size of Pot Crop Doesn't Matter, Appeal Court Rules
ccguide Thursday 29 May 2003 Pubdate: Mon, 26 May 2003 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2003 The Vancouver Sun Contact: Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun SIZE OF POT CROP DOESN'T MATTER, APPEAL COURT RULES The B.C. Court of Appeal has decided a one-year conditional sentence is more appropriate than a three-month jail sentence for two Vancouver men caught growing 1,535 marijuana plants worth more than $500,000. Muhuammad Rafeeq Shah and Onur Kokak were busted two years ago with a marijuana growing operation on Granville Street. Kokak, 28, came to Canada from Turkey when he was four years old. Shah, 29, was born and raised in Alberta. Both were steadily and regularly employed. Each expressed remorse for the offence and entered guilty pleas to unlawful production of marijuana. The sentencing judge decided that a conditional sentence order would be inappropriate because of the size of the crop. She also concluded that the factor relating to public safety would not be met. "In my view, the sentencing judge erred in this regard," B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Richard Low concluded in a judgment released last week. "The size of the crop should not stand in the way of the imposition of a conditional sentence. It is in my opinion that in all of the circumstances of this case, a conditional sentence was appropriate." Two other appeal court judges agreed with Low's ruling, which substituted a one-year conditional sentence for the three-month jail sentence imposed at trial. The judge said the terms of the conditional sentence, which the pot growers will serve at home, will include a nightly curfew and restrictions on the use of cellular phones and pagers. The court was told the seized pot plants were worth about $537,000 if sold at the pound level. A pound of B.C. pot fetches about $2,000; an ounce about $200. The court cited the previous decision in the case of Ricky Vincent Whyte, 36, who was sentenced to a year in jail for possession for the purpose of trafficking marijuana after he was busted with several hundred marijuana plants. Last year, the appeal court substituted a conditional sentence of two years less a day. "For many years it has been an important consideration in sentencing in this province to avoid, if possible, incarcerating first offenders for non-violent crimes and this is such a case," Appeal Court Justice Mary Southin said in the Whyte appeal. "I think one of the aspects of conditional sentences is to continue that approach which the law has taken in recent years, I would say since the Second World War," the judge added. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
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