[420 Girl]

Federal Crown attorney Clayton Conlan withdrew all drug charges against a Meaford man who says he uses marijuana medicinally and against the man's wife because prosecuting the charges "would not be in the public interest."

James Kerr, 36, and Celena Negovetich, 30, agreed to forfeit the $6,800 worth of marijuana police seized Jan. 4 in their Meaford home, but they are getting back most of the $1,700 worth equipment to grow more pot.

Tuesday had been set aside for their trial and the couple had said they would represent themselves.

But they came to court having already worked out terms of a resolution with the Crown, so their appearance in the Ontario Court of Justice to officially withdraw the charges was brief.

Conlan said in an interview he withdrew the charges of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and production of marijuana against both Kerr and Negovetich after consulting with his superior at the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.

Kerr had applied for licences to grow and use marijuana long before he was charged and he received both licences the month after charges were laid, Conlan said.

It was still a "technical breach" of the law, but not one that either Conlan or his boss thought was worth prosecuting.

"I just don't think that it was worthwhile, quite frankly, prosecuting somebody who has legitimate, serious medical problems and who now has a valid licence."

Kerr was diagnosed in September 2005 with multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system with no cure.

It causes attacks of prolonged muscle spasms and headaches, which he says, are relieved with marijuana. He is on a disability pension because of his illness.

Conlan also praised the police work leading to the charges and thinks there was a reasonable prospect both Kerr and Negovetich would have been convicted.

Kerr's reaction was subdued when reached at home after court.

In May, after rejecting an earlier Crown proposal, Kerr said he intended to fight the charges by arguing Canada's marijuana possession law is unconstitutional.

He said a stay of the charges proposed earlier by the Crown threatened to impede his wife's ability to travel to the United States if required for employment purposes, something Conlan disputes.

Negovetich is a retail store manager.

"She could lose her job, so that was the main reason I decided to accept this," Kerr said of the Crown's decision to withdraw all charges.

A stay also would have allowed prosecutors to proceed with the charges again within one year.

Kerr added the resolution relieves their stress, which was taking a toll on his health, and lets him continue to grow marijuana that is of superior quality and more effective than government-grown medicinal marijuana.

Kerr and Negovetich had been consulting Edwin Pearson, a pot activist who has written a book called "Never Plead Guilty," and Doug Hutchinson, a philosophy professor who calls himself a pothead.

Both Pearson's and Hutchinson's arguments stem from whether the government's medical marijuana access regulations are a constitutionally acceptable medical exemption, in accordance with a 2001 court of appeal ruling.

Conlan said the pot law has not fallen, though there have been a couple of provincial court decisions in Ontario striking down the simple possession of marijuana charge, Section 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

"But those decisions, first of all, are under appeal. Secondly, there are decisions, which go the other way, which say no, it is still a valid offence.

There is nothing constitutionally wrong with the CDSA," Conlan said.

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