Man Caught with Pot can Keep on Hunting

[SmokeWeed]

A British Columbia man who received a conditional sentence after pleading guilty to possessing 160 pounds of marijuana will be allowed to keep hunting even though the Criminal Code imposes a 10-year prohibition of owning and possessing firearms.

Jerry Lambert, of Chilliwack, B.C., didn't object to any of the sentencing conditions that Justice Murray Sinclair imposed on him yesterday. But Lambert responded when Sinclair told him he couldn't own or possess a firearm for 10 years.

Lambert is Metis and routinely hunts to provide food for his family but the weapons prohibition would have put an end to that for the next 10 years. Sinclair told Lambert that he could hunt but he couldn't keep the weapons at his home when he's not hunting.

But Sinclair, himself an aboriginal person, told Lambert that as a Metis he has a right to hunt and he'd be willing to allow him to continue to hunt if he could provide the court with the name of an individual who would keep his weapons when he's not hunting.

When Lambert couldn't think of anyone who could safely keep his weapons for him, Sinclair said a name wasn't necessary so long as it was someone legally allowed to possess weapons.

Lambert had been pulled over by the RCMP on the Trans-Canada Highway near Headingley in February 2004 when they found the marijuana hidden in his pickup truck. Sinclair gave Lambert a $5,000 fine and a conditional sentence of two years less a day. Court was told that Lambert had a strong letter of reference from his employer, a scrap metal dealer in B.C., and that Lambert had no previous criminal record.

Lambert's lawyer and the Crown attorney's office had agreed on a joint recommendation to Sinclair.

Sinclair also ordered Lambert to give up his truck and about $1,700 in cash that police found on him at the time of his arrest.


Newshawk: Stoner4Life - 420 Magazine
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Pubdate: Tue, 12 Sep 2006
Author: Aldo Santin
Copyright: 2006 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: letters@freepress.mb.ca
Website: The Winnipeg Free Press Online Edition