'Medical-use' pot seller to give birth in jail
By: Richard Foot, Vancouver Sun (CN BC), 06-02-05


A New Brunswick judge has sentenced a pregnant woman to jail -- forcing her to have her baby behind bars this summer -- after selling marijuana in what she claims was a cannabis compassion club for medical users.

Lynn Wood, 32, is six months pregnant. Her lawyer had pleaded with New Brunswick Provincial Court Judge Murray Cain to place his client under house arrest to let her deliver her baby at home.

But Cain insisted on a prison term Wednesday, saying Wood was likely to keep selling pot if not jailed. He said she would have access to medical care while having the baby in prison.

The sentence has outraged some marijuana activists, including Vancouver-based Marc Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, who says Wood is the first Canadian ever sent to jail for selling pot for medical reasons.

"A prison term is unbelievable," Emery said Wednesday. "She's a wonderful person. She already has three children at home. This is going to be devastating to her."

Cain, however, rejected arguments at Wood's trial earlier this year that she and her husband James had operated a marijuana compassion club -- selling only to proven medical users -- at the couple's Cannabis Cafe in downtown Saint John.

Wood claims she asked for doctor's letters from customers before dispensing marijuana.

© 2005 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana