MARIJUANA CROP NETS SIXMONTH SENTENCE

It was grown in an apartment and would have been valued at $100,000,
but the grower will serve only community time.

By Don Murray, Free Press Justice Reporter

A young London apartmentdweller who was caught cultivating what
could have grown into a $100,000 marijuana crop has received a
sentence of six months, to be served in the community.

In passing sentence on Wednesday, Judge Alan Baker said the two
offences admitted by Daniel A. Miller, 23, cultivation and
possession of marijuana for the purposes of trafficking are worthy
of time in jail.

However, he said he was persuaded that Miller's was one of the "rare"
drug cases where the relatively new community sentence provision can
be substituted for incarceration.

Miller's lawyer Dan Mailer had argued for such a sentence, telling
Baker his client was young, had no criminal record, cooperated with
police, pleaded guilty as soon as possible, has a steady job, hopes
to go to university and was not a danger to the community.

The latter factor is required in the Criminal Code section on
community sentences, instituted by the province last year to ease
jail crowding by letting nondangerous, lesser offenders serve their
time outside.

Federal prosecutor David Rowcliffe opposed Mailer's bid, saying six
months in jail was suitable for Miller, who was jobless at the time
and motivated by "greed" and the chance of easy money.

SEARCH WARRANT: Rowcliffe said on Dec. 3, 1996, the London drug squad with
a search warrant entered Miller's 343 Richmond St. apartment with the aid
of a door ram.

The smell of marijuana was strong, said the prosecutor, and behind a
locked door at the end of a hallway, police found Miller's growing operation.

Tended by growth lamps and other paraphernalia, Rowcliffe said police
found 78 plants ranging from two to five feet in height.

The street value at that stage was about $12,000, he said, but if
allowed to reach maturity the crop could have fetched more than $100,000.

Mailer admitted that his client had turned to pot farming after being
fired from a job for not showing up. He was growing the crop for
money and to supply himself and his friends, said the lawyer.

He told Baker that Miller has been working steadily on an Elgin
County farm and produced a letter of recommendation from his employer.

Rowcliffe said Miller is an admitted marijuana user and "greed got
the better of him... he chose the easy way out... to make a lot of money."

Baker agreed with the prosecutor that the case called for a jail sentence.

However, balancing the aggravating factors against the positive ones
argued by Mailer, the Ontario Court, provincial division judge said
he was tilting toward the accused.

Baker warned Miller that among the possible penalties for violating
his community sentence is jail. He added a list of conditions ot the
sentence, including staying away from nonprescription controlled drugs.

When Miller completes his sentence he will begin an 18month period
of probation, which also carries the ban on drugs.