[420 Girl]

The Supreme Court of Canada won't hear the case of a pair of pot-smoking, self-styled clerics who were demanding the right to use marijuana while on bail appealing a dope conviction.

Michael Baldasaro and Walter Tucker of Hamilton call themselves reverend brothers of the Church of the Universe and view marijuana as a sacrament. Representing themselves, they contended the drug laws violate their right to practise their religion.

They were convicted of trafficking marijuana last April, after selling pot to an undercover police officer. They were sentenced to two years and one year, respectively, and their Hamilton residence-- which doubles as a church-- was ordered seized.

Superior Court Justice John Cavarzan rejected their sacramental argument.

Their residence, he said was "a marijuana convenience store that operates for profit like a Prohibition-era speakeasy, but disguised as a church."

They were granted bail when they filed an appeal after the conviction, but then went to court because the conditions of release banned them from smoking or distributing marijuana.

The Ontario Court of Appeal rejected their religious-rights argument. They then sought leave to go to the Supreme Court, acting on their own without a lawyer.

As is usual in leave-to-appeal rulings, the court gave no reasons for refusing to hear the case.

Their appeal of the pot conviction is still before the courts.

Tucker, 75, founded the Church of the Universe in 1969, while living in a sort of hippy commune on a tract of land around a water-filled quarry near Hamilton.

The church dogma is based on two golden rules: Do not hurt yourself; do not hurt anyone else.

Its doctrine includes a claim that marijuana is the original Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden and its use is indispensable for those seeking to know God.

The church fell on hard times after the discovery of a badly decomposed body near the quarry in the mid-1970s. Rumours of biker involvement led to intense police scrutiny that landed Baldasaro and Tucker in legal trouble repeatedly over the years.

They became regular characters in Hamilton courtroom where their trademark bushy beards and hats woven from hemp made them hard to miss.

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