Mission Accomplished Says Holy Smoke Team
By: Sara Newham, Nelson Daily News (CN BC), 05-06-08

It's a waiting game for the four accused in the Holy Smoke drug trafficking trial that took place last week.

Written arguments and replies will be made during the summer with a final ruling expected no sooner than September 26. But while no one may be certain of the outcome the defense team said it was pleased all of its evidence was allowed during the potentially-landmark case despite repeated objections by the Crown over the relevancy of testimonies.

"I think we did a good job of at least entering all the evidence we wanted to enter. The judge was really good about letting us have every witness that we wanted," said Paul DeFelice, one of three Holy Smoke co-owners and four accused of trafficking cannabis. "The crown tried to argue away some of them but the judge allowed them to make their testimony."

On Monday, the Crown submitted its evidence that four undercover police officers from the Lower Mainland purchased various drugs from the store on June 2 and 3 and July 12 and 13 in 2006. Prosecutor Rob Brown was not available for comment.

The defense meanwhile did not contest the facts of the case and began to argue its defense of necessity and reverse gateway theory. They claim they were doing more good than harm and sold only to people 19 and over. They also argued that marijuana actually helps people stop or reduce their consumption of so-called 'hard' drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.

"We know it's illegal but you know sometimes the law is better off broken than not broken. That's called necessity. That's an age-old defense, common-law. It's not even set out in the statutes. It's preserved in the statutes. It's preserved in the statutes but it's a common law defense. It's a common sense defense as well," said defense lawyer Donald Skogstad, comparing the situation to that of a 15-year-old boy who illegally gets behind the wheel of the family car to seek medical help after his Dad severely injures himself while out camping in the woods.

"There's rare occasions when it can be used. We think this is one of them, in Nelson with these kind of people, in this climate."

Skogstad was particularly pleased with the testimony of U.S. expert Dr. Robert Melamede who testified Thursday on the medical benefits of cannabis and on the reverse gateway theory.

"He [Melamede] went far beyond what our fondest hopes had been, he went beyond those. He was an excellent witness and that's because he's one of the world's leading experts on this and is obviously a brilliant man, very forthcoming and he can remember things and he can help us with a lot but I now need to read all that," said Skogstad.

Melamede's complex, scientific explanation prompted Judge Don Sperry to quip that his transcriber would hate him when he ordered the transcript of the testimony because of all the scientific words Melamede mentioned.

Skogstad said he would read the transcript before presenting his written argument to the court for review by Sperry. He added that he was surprised that the Crown did not bother calling an expert.

"In other trials they have called their own experts but...this allows me to say that our expert's evidence is undisputed," he said.

2004 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana