Creator told me to grow pot, man tells trial

[Praxius]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/02/06/marijuana-defence.html

The trial of six men charged after one of the biggest grow-op busts in Saskatchewan's history heard Tuesday that the thousands of marijuana plants seized were for medicinal purposes.

The six are charged with production and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

They were charged after the RCMP raided several greenhouses on the Pasqua First Nation near Fort Qu'Appelle in August 2005. The Crown said $3 million worth of marijuana could have been harvested from the 6,000 marijuana plants seized in the raid.

However, defendant Lawrence Agecoutay, 52, who calls himself a spiritual chief, a title he says is based on his lineage, testified he was directed by "the Creator" to grow the plants to provide the ingredients for a cure for diabetes."

"As the Creator has instructed me, I must do," he said outside court. "You know, when the Creator tells me I must do something, I have absolutely no choice. In our system it is to dream, to learn, and to do. You receive your instruction while your body sleeps, you learn about your instructions, and then you do as you're instructed."

He said aboriginal people, including both of his parents, have been ravaged by diabetes. He said his own mother underwent several amputations before she died of the disease.
"The people are dying everyday; we have to stop that, someone has to fight for our people," Agecoutay said.

With the Queen's Bench trial into its third week, Agecoutay is scheduled to continue his testimony Wednesday.

Not Guilty due to religious practice imo. They've been growing the stuff for centuries before Europeans arrived, who are we to dictate to them what they can or can not do based on their spiritual practices, which have been in place forever? Not to mention he has a medical excuse for why he was driven to grow.

Change the laws before more harmless people get thrown into jail.

 

[lone wolf]

Power comes from the money - and the money's tied up in pharmaceuticals, alcohol, paper, textiles, lumber and food. They don't want competition from something you can grow in your own back yard. Man made booze. God made pot. Who do YOU trust....

Woof!

 

[Praxius]

Wow, you throw the God thing in there and I just don't know anymore *ponders* lol

But I agree. Perhaps these pharmaceutical companies should loose that chunk of profit and it might actually make them have to do some real work for once, for things that perhaps natural drugs can't cure or improve on. Why waste time and money making BS artificial solutions which work half as good as the real thing, when you can use the real thing and perhaps improving apon that?

Just too simple I suppose. Kinda like seeking profit over actual health, which I thought was their damn job to begin with.

Canada needs a Goon Squad for these sort of orginizations. Whenever a company or organization doesn't do or practice what they are supposed to and are not in it for the job they are supposed to be for, then send in the goon squad and crack some knee caps.

Ah.... the good ol days.

 

[jenn]

ok. I agree with marijuana for medicinal purposes BUT 6,000 plants seems a bit much.... or were they growng it for the whole province...lol

 

[Praxius]

ok. I agree with marijuana for medicinal purposes BUT 6,000 plants seems a bit much.... or were they growng it for the whole province...lol

Perhaps within the reserves. *shrugs*

 

[lone wolf]

I heard blueberry leaf tea for diabetes. I know of a Chruch who uses pot for sacrament. Methinks somebody is cooking up a great defense sorely lacking in support. Should come up with that paper trail before you get busted....

Woof!

 

[karrie]

I'm all for pot, but, pot is bad for people with diabetes from what I understand.

for one, it can lower the immune system and raise the risk of infections, thus creating even more problems with the feet.

for another thing, it can give you the munchies, which ruins the careful planning that goes into a healthy diabetes diet.

but kudos to them for a novel approach.

 

[lone wolf]

I'm all for pot, but, pot is bad for people with diabetes from what I understand.

for one, it can lower the immune system and raise the risk of infections, thus creating even more problems with the feet.

for another thing, it can give you the munchies, which ruins the careful planning that goes into a healthy diabetes diet.

but kudos to them for a novel approach.

I heard some of the same stuff about pot and diabetics. It's a drug, and like every one of them, it's not for everyone. Novel approach for the defense is cool ... Research might have been a good idea though - glaucoma, pain, expectorant. Hell, say you're growing for Compassionate Cannabis ... or you're Rhasta or Church of the Universe if you GOTTA play the religious freedom card....

Woof!

 

[Vereya]

Man made booze. God made pot. Who do YOU trust....

Sounds good enough to be a signature. Or a slogan.

 

[Lester]

time

I'm all for pot, but, pot is bad for people with diabetes from what I understand.

for one, it can lower the immune system and raise the risk of infections, thus creating even more problems with the feet.

for another thing, it can give you the munchies, which ruins the careful planning that goes into a healthy diabetes diet.

but kudos to them for a novel approach.

I am a type II diabetic - I also smoke pot- The munchies are a problem but I just have a big bottle of water handy- people usually have problems with their feet when thev'e had diabetes for a while- it destroys the nerve endings and the feet go numb so you don't notice that an infection has set in till it's to late.

 

[karrie]

Lester. Much of the research I've read on it attributes minor suppression of the immune system to it. So, if you might get an infection in your feet, pot could make it harder to get over it.

But, it's not the only medication with side effects. Alcohol's perfectly legal and it will do ten times worse to a diabetic. It's all a balancing act.

 

[Kreskin]

That's funny, God told me not to grow it.

 

[gerryh]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/02/06/marijuana-defence.html



Not Guilty due to religious practice imo. They've been growing the stuff for centuries before Europeans arrived, who are we to dictate to them what they can or can not do based on their spiritual practices, which have been in place forever? Not to mention he has a medical excuse for why he was driven to grow.

Change the laws before more harmless people get thrown into jail.

Just a small problem with this statement....Cannabis isn't indigenous to North America. Plus Canabis is not a recognised treatment for diabetes( runs in my family). So your entire argument falls flat on it's face.

 

[Praxius]

Just a small problem with this statement....Cannabis isn't indigenous to North America. Plus Canabis is not a recognised treatment for diabetes( runs in my family). So your entire argument falls flat on it's face.

It is indeed indigenous to North America and elsewhere around the world. And weed is not a recognised treatment for pretty much anything depending on who you ask and in what country.

Science explains that most considder weed originated in Asia, or China to be more specific. Those same scientists also suggested that Native North Americans originated centuries ago in Asia and possibly traveled between Alaska and the far eastern tip of Asia sometime during a great freeze/ice age. It could have come along with them if this was true.

But besides that:

While there is strong historical evidence illustrating that the psychoactive properties of cannabis have been used as part of cultural practices of several societies throughout the world, it is unclear when the psychoactive properties of cannabis were discovered in North America. Some scholars believe that cannabis probably existed in North America long before the Europeans arrived. In Chris Bennett’s book Green Gold: Marijuana in Magic and Religion he says, “there is some very good physical evidence that indicates cannabis played a part in some of the native cultures prior to the arrival of Columbus.” In 1985, Bill Fitzgerald discovered resin scrapings of 500-year-old pipes in Morriston, Ontario containing “traces of hemp and tobacco that is five times stronger than the cigarettes smoked today.” Other archaeological evidence includes stone and wooden pipes and hemp fibre pouches that were found in the Ohio Valley from about 800 A.D.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/...m#A. Historical Origins and Uses of Cannabis

Flat on its face huh?

 

[Unforgiven]

Lester. Much of the research I've read on it attributes minor suppression of the immune system to it. So, if you might get an infection in your feet, pot could make it harder to get over it.

But, it's not the only medication with side effects. Alcohol's perfectly legal and it will do ten times worse to a diabetic. It's all a balancing act.

Despite the fairly large literature that developed during the past 15 years or so, the effect of cannabinoids on the immune system is still unsettled. The evidence has been contradictory and is more supportive of some degree of immunosuppression only when one considers in vitro studies. These have been seriously flawed by the very high concentrations of drug used to produce immunosuppression and by the lack of comparisons with other membrane-active drugs. The closer that experimental studies have been to actual clinical situations, the less compelling has been the evidence.

Although the topic was of great interest during the 1970s, as indicated by the preponderance of references from that period, interest has waned during the present decade. This waning of interest suggests that perhaps most investigators feel that this line of inquiry will not be rewarding. The AIDS epidemic has also diverted the attention of the immunologists to the far more serious problem of the truly devastating effects a retrovirus can have on a portion of the immune system.
The relationship between the use of social drugs and the development of clinical manifestations of AIDS has been of some interest, however. Persons infected with the virus but not diagnosed as AIDS have been told to avoid the use of marijuana and/or alcohol. This advice may be reasonable as a general health measure, but direct evidence that heeding this warning will prevent the ultimate damage to the immune system is totally lacking.

http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/JOPD_Immunity_Hollister_92.html

 

[#juan]

6,000 plants is a pretty big operation. Pot growers don't usually start out that big. I am curious to know when they did start, and what they did with the earlier crops. Did the earlier crops get used for "Diabetes research" or was it sold by the ounce or dime bag? I may be a cynic but we all know there is a large, willing, market for that product.