[420 Girl]

NELSON - The owners of the Holy Smoke Culture Shop have admitted in provincial court to selling organic cannabis from their downtown premises.

However, they are putting forward a "defence of necessity," saying they did more good than harm.

According to testimony, the store began a "designated dealer" program in 2004-05 to get rid of "unscrupulous" dealers selling drugs in a nearby garden.

They say they tried everything, including erecting a large sign, to get rid of those dealers and prevent them from selling to youth, but nothing worked. But once Holy Smoke started dealing and allowed people to smoke inside the store, the accused claim the garden dealers virtually disappeared.

Alan Middlemiss, "spiritual" owner and one of four accused of trafficking cannabis from the store, testified customers had to be 19 or older, sober, and polite before they could buy drugs from Holy Smoke.

"We asked that they say please," said Middlemiss, who added that he enjoyed asking people for ID before they passed through three doorways and two rooms to the veranda to purchase the pot.

Holy Smoke co-owner Paul DeFelice and associates Kelsey Stratas and Akka Annis are also each facing two counts of trafficking cannabis, stemming from a 2006 drug bust led by the Nelson police.

The Crown's case concluded this week following evidence that undercover police officers from the Lower Mainland purchased various drugs, including cannabis and psilocybins, on June 2 and 3 and July 12 and 13, 2006.

According to Crown prosecutor Rob Brown, the purchases ranged in price from as low as $10 to as high as $240, the latter for about 30 grams of cannabis.

Judge Don Sperry also heard testimony from co-owner Dustin Cantwell, who has not been charged, that the designated dealers -- about three to five of them in all -- had to be trained by Holy Smoke, trusted and activist-minded, that they had to possess a digital scale to weigh the drugs, and they were not permitted to resell the substances.


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