MAN WHO GREW DOPE FOR SON SENTENCED

A Kitchener father who said he grew marijuana at home so his son wouldn't
have to buy it on the street probably escaped a jail sentence Tuesday
because he agreed to live with his mother for six months.

Judge Donald MacMillan said the fact that the man wouldn't be living with
his stepson made imposing the six-month conditional sentence much more
acceptable.

Otherwise, the judge said he would have hesitated to agree to a conditional
sentence, given the nature of the case. He called the father's motivation
for growing 20 marijuana plants at home "appalling."

Lawyer Aaron Grupp said the man did it because his 15-year-old stepson was
using marijuana and wouldn't stop.

He didn't want the son exposed to the "dangers of street drugs" which could
be cut with unsafe substances, Grupp said.

Grupp likened his actions to those of a father who introduces a child
beginning to experiment with liquor to drinking at home in a controlled
environment.

But drug prosecutor Pat Flynn said the father was supposed to be a role
model and "guiding hand" for the son, not someone who encouraged criminal
conduct.

The judge called the man's actions "terribly misguided," and not the
behaviour of a reponsible adult raising a child.

The procecutor and judge said they also had to consider a conditional
sentence because of the 41-year-old man's medical condition.

He had a colostomy, and the bag would have been hard to manage in jail,
Grupp said.

"This is a person who has very significant health problems," MacMillan said.

He also took into account the man's lack of criminal record and his guilty
plea to production of marijuana and trafficking. The judge said trafficking
in marijuana has to be treated more leniently than harder drugs such as
cocaine.

Along with the plants, police also found 96 grams of plant material and
marijuana joints. The plants could have yielded three pounds of marijuana
worth about $7,500 on the street.

The judge also ordered the man to perform 150 hours of community service
and placed him on probation for 18 months.

He can't be named because his son was also charged, and is a young person.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski