THC IN COOKIES WAS MINIMAL, COURT TOLD

[Alfa]

THC IN COOKIES WAS MINIMAL, COURT TOLD


Analysis performed on cookies seized from marijuana activist Ted Smith indicates they contained too little active ingredients to have any effect, court heard Wednesday.


"Basically my opinion is you probably couldn't get an effect, based on the deductions I have made," testified David Pate, a pharmaceutical chemist with a background in plant biology specializing in cannabis and its contained substances.


The pony-tailed and long-bearded Pate was testifying as a witness for the defence in the B.C. Supreme Court trial of Leon (Ted) Smith, 36.


Smith is facing a charge of possession of tetrahydrocannabinol (the substance commonly known as THC) for the purpose of trafficking.


Earlier testimony indicated police arrested Smith on Nov. 15, 2002 and seized 383 cookies, weighing an estimated 40 to 50 pounds.


Officers were moving in after reading an article in a Victoria weekly newspaper which said he was planning to give away marijuana cookies at a demonstration that day. According to the author of the article, Smith was a committed member of a Victoria compassion club.


According to one police witness, Smith, when asked after he was arrested, said he used about two ounces to make the cookies.


Analysis from Health Canada was also entered as evidence to show the cookies contained THC.


But Health Canada analyst Brian Taylor said Wednesday his test results were not based on an analysis of the cookies. Instead, he analysed an oil stain on the paper bag containing the cookies, assuming it was a good indication of what was in the cookies.


But Pate took issue with that assumption saying any oil in the cookie would have leached out the THC artificially concentrating it.


Pate deduced -- based on the lab tests Taylor used to analyse the stain -- that the concentrations eventually discovered were very low, anyway.


Such low concentrations mean the THC could have come from sources other than marijuana.


THC can be found in a number of legal hemp products, such as hemp grown for fibre, seeds sold as food, or oil used in cooking, he added.


"It could be some form of THC derived from any number of sources,"


said Pate.


"It could be anything from marijuana to oil you bought at the grocery store, hemp oil," he said.

[Alfa]

MARIJUANA ACTIVIST SENTENCED TO ONE DAY IN JAIL AFTER CONVICTION


Marijuana activist Ted Smith was sentenced to one day in jail Friday, the lowest allowable sentence on his particular drug conviction for cannabis cookies.


Justice R. Dean Wilson handed Smith the one-day sentence, rejecting Crown's call for nine months to be served in the community.


Defence lawyer Robert Moore-Stewart told Wilson he would have asked for an absolute discharge but the Canadian Criminal Code doesn't allow that when the offence, like Smith's conviction, carries a maximum penalty of life.


Moore-Stewart asked for the one day.


Smith was convicted on Thursday of possession of tetrahyrdocannabinol (the substance found in marijuana called THC) for the purpose of trafficking.


Unlike charges for marijuana or hashish, where quantities under three kilograms are subject to a maximum penalty of five years less one day, convictions for THC carry a maximum penalty of life.


The jury heard how police arrested Smith on Nov. 15, 2000 near the downtown library.


He was unloading what was eventually found to be about 40 to 50 pounds of chocolate chip cookies.


The officers were reacting to a newspaper article in which Smith was quoted as saying he planned to give away several hundred marijuana cookies as part of a pro-marijuana rally.


During the three-day trial, the defence presented evidence from an expert in pharmaceutical chemistry to throw doubt on the laboratory analysis of the cookies. The Health Canada analyst didn't even look at the cookies.


Instead, he performed a lab test of the greasy smear the cookies left on a paper bag.


The defence expert said there are any number of legal products, hemp seed, hemp oil, which contain THC and are used in baking.


But Crown counsel Richard Fowler presented evidence from an arresting police officer who testified Smith openly admitted in an interview to using about two ounces of marijuana to make the cookies.


Even Smith, after his conviction, said in an interview outside the courtroom he regretted having such a "big mouth," particularly with arresting police officers.


Just before he was sentenced, the judge asked Smith if he had anything to say. Smith stated that he never intended to cause any person any harm.


Smith also said he has learned his lesson. There are other ways he can make his point.


"I have no intention of actively flaunting the law so as to put myself at risk," he said.


"Society has changed in the last five years and I'm no longer as driven as I was."


Smith now has two convictions for trafficking, both times for passing out samples at a rally. The first conviction, now under appeal, occurred in January. He was arrested on Nov. 8, 2000 (about a week before his cookie


bust) for passing out joints at a demonstration at the University of Victoria.


Smith is a founding member of the Victoria Cannabis Buyer's Club. Commonly called a compassion club, it's an organization that supplies marijuana as medicine to people suffering incurable medical conditions.


Police have raided the club four times and 11 charges have been laid and every one has been either dropped, stayed or overturned on appeal.

[dopefiend]

2 oz's of pot in 300+ cookies??? Either this mans got a bud
butter recipe any of us would kill for or all he was handing out was a
big batch of placebo. If the latter were true i say he should be jailed
either way regardless of his efforts.

Peace