February 27, 2010 – An Ottawa technology consultant who told a judge he possessed more than a kilogram of marijuana because he was using it to help a sick friend avoided a criminal record when the judge gave him an absolute discharge Wednesday.

Ontario Court Justice Jack Nadelle said a discharge for Lyle “Rick” Tweedy was appropriate and not against the public interest given the extraordinary circumstances in the case, which involved Tweedy possessing a little more than 1.2 kilograms of the drug. He was, he testified, planning to make hemp oil out of marijuana to help his friend Margot MacLeod ease the pain caused by her cervical cancer. She died Jan. 12.

Tweedy, 44, was arrested in May 2009 after police officers, searching for a marijuana grow-op at the Tranquility Lane house where he was staying, found the drug in his bedroom. The search warrant was targeting his roommates, who are still facing charges before the court.

Tweedy pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking in late January. Federal Crown prosecutors had been seeking a four-to-six-month conditional sentence to be served in the community.

Court heard Tweedy had been caring for MacLeod over the final five months of her life, staying with her regularly to attend to both her physical and emotional needs and spending the final nights of her life at her hospital bedside.

In a letter to the court written last October, MacLeod, who was 42, wrote that Tweedy was “the only person willing to do whatever he could to help me.”

Hopeful that her cancer could be cured by hemp oil after researching alternative cancer therapy, MacLeod said she hoped the drug might at least help control her pain. Tweedy was unable to provide her with the hemp oil and her health declined rapidly, she said.

A kilogram of marijuana can make approximately 60 grams of hemp oil.

“If it were not for his compassion and generosity I am sure I would have been forced to leave my home to live at a full-time nursing facility,” wrote MacLeod, whose obituary described Tweedy as one of her “special angels.”

MacLeod’s brother, Kenneth, wrote in a separate letter that Tweedy “selflessly put aside his own life” to look after MacLeod.

In his decision, Nadelle found that Tweedy’s care of MacLeod was a form of community service and that sentencing him to probation would serve no purpose. Nadelle also noted Tweedy’s good character and lack of criminal record and that the crime wasn’t motivated for profit.

The absolute discharge will be removed from Tweedy’s record after a year.

Tweedy said he believed he was doing the right thing by helping his friend even though it put him in harm’s way.

He had no reason to doubt, he said, that MacLeod’s life could be improved through the use of hemp oil after researching the work of a Nova Scotia man who promotes it as a cure.

“It is important for the courts to keep an open mind with respect to marijuana offences because it should not be the Queen, Crown, or policy maker who determines what is best for an individual’s own health and well-being,” said Tweedy. “People need to live what they believe is right.”  Source.

The Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board said Canada is operating outside international treaty rules aimed at minimizing the risk criminals will get hold of cannabis grown under the program.

“The whole question of medical marijuana is being looked at by the minister of health with respect to the options that she has,” said Nicholson, whose ministry serves as the umbrella agency for the government’s anti-drug efforts.

“There has been litigation on this that has called for new regulations in this area.”

The warning in the INCB’s annual report accompanies praise for the government’s National Anti-Drug Strategy, which the board said it notes “with appreciation.”

Nicholson said he took heart from that, adding it “plays very well” into the government’s efforts to push through a crime bill containing tougher drugs-offences sentencing provisions that has been held up in the Senate.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews also argued the report “provides further proof that Canada is recognized internationally as a leader in crime prevention.”

Canada increased the number of cannabis cultivation licences a person can hold last year after court decisions stated patients’ earlier access had been too restricted.

Currently, Health Canada has issued almost 4,900 permits allowing people to possess medical marijuana they get from more than 1,100 licensed growers, some of whom are growing it for their own use.

“Canada continues to be one of the few countries in the world that allows cannabis to be prescribed by doctors to patients with certain serious illnesses,” said the INCB report.

But the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics, which Canada has signed, says the government must be the sole distributor of the otherwise illegal substance, which patients use as a pain reliever.

The opportunity for misuse of the system is reflected in an RCMP review identifying 40 cases in which licensed growers were also trafficking marijuana for profit. The same review found violations in a total of 70 cases.

While the INCB report noted that Canada “intends to reassess” its access-to-cannabis program, it said the board “requests the government to respect the provisions” of the 1961 convention in conducting its review.

The sole company among the growers that Health Canada has contracted to supply some 28 per cent of the current permit holders signalled Wednesday it would welcome a more focused oversight.

“We get severe criticism from the armchair critics and those who feel threatened that we’re infringing on their rights to produce cannabis,” said Brent Zettl, president of Prairie Plant Systems Inc., of Saskatoon.

“But we’re already essentially conforming to the convention.”

Health Canada frequently inspects the company’s operations, and officially “owns” the cannabis it produces for shipment to clients.

Even some involved in helping patients acquire the possession permits agree that the current system is flawed.

“To Health Canada’s self-admittance, there are a lot of grey areas,” said Chad Clelland, director of online and community relations with medicalmarihuana.ca, an Internet-based support site. “But they are so slow to change.”

Still, Clelland said he does not believe that centralized government-run production is the answer.

“A lot of patients find different strains affect their symptoms in different ways, so the government would have to have multiple strains in production to give a proper selections,” he said.  Source.