AMHERST - A Maccan-area man urged a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury Monday to find him not guilty of three drug charges because the marijuana he possessed and produced was a cure for cancer.

"If you were to discover the cure for cancer, could you in good conscience keep the information from others?" Richard Logan Simpson asked in his summation.

"If . . . you contacted every person or agency who you thought might be able to help make the cure available and they did nothing, would you still not feel compelled to continue to grow, process and provide the cure? All you have to do is put yourselves in my shoes. Would you not have tried to help people?

"In the end, it's all about a person's conscience. Would you consider saving lives and easing human suffering with man's oldest known and safest medication a criminal act? You can use the power invested in a jury to find me not guilty for following my conscience."

Mr. Simpson was charged with possessing less than 30 grams of marijuana, possessing less than three kilograms of cannabis resin for the purpose of trafficking and unlawfully producing marijuana following a raid on his property in August of 2005.

Initially the trafficking charge alleged that Mr. Simpson had trafficked in cannabis resin, but it was amended Monday at the request of Crown attorney Monica MacQueen to read that he had trafficked in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active component in cannabis preparations, including marijuana and cannabis resin.

The 57-year-old also told the jury it was a matter of necessity that he sought treatment through marijuana. Pharmaceutical drugs prescribed by a doctor, he explained, didn't alleviate the life-threatening symptoms he experienced from post-concussion syndrome, including depression and thoughts of suicide.

And doctors refused to even discuss giving him a prescription for marijuana.

"That left me with no other recourse but to provide my own," he said.

As he did in his testimony, Mr. Simpson claimed the law outlawing marijuana was unconstitutional and forced Canadians to resort to illegal means to acquire the effective medication.

In addition, he said he wasn't trafficking because he provided the oil he produced to others for free.

Ms. MacQueen disagreed, pointing out to the jury that the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act clearly states that giving away marijuana, marijuana oil or THC was included in the law's definition of trafficking.

There is no doubt that Mr. Simpson believes in the medicinal value of marijuana and that he did not receive any financial gain, she said, but that isn't enough to find him not guilty because society does not allow an individual to decide what law they should or should not follow.

The evidence by the police and Mr. Simpson's own admissions clearly showed he possessed marijuana, possessed THC for the purpose of trafficking, and had grown such a large crop of marijuana that it would have taken an individual more than 76 years to smoke it all, the Crown attorney said.

Mr. Simpson couldn't use the defence of necessity because he could have acquired medicinal marijuana through the federal government's own program if he had chosen to do so, Ms. MacQueen added.

The jury will begin its deliberations today.

004 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana