How illegal, exactly, is it to possess or cultivate weed in British Columbia? It’s simple to find real examples of what happens just by looking on the web. Below I have some actual examples of sentences.

Provincial Courthouse, North Van. June, 2011. Offense: Possession of Marijuana. The defense lawyer had to have the court decide if criminal charges were in the public interest. The court decided to proceed with an alternative measures program involving a course. On completion of the course the charges were dropped. There was no criminal record as a result.

Nanaimo Provincial Court. Spring 2011. Offense: Cultivation and possession plus an application to return seized money. $2000 seized by police from the defendant was alleged to be proceeds of crime. The defense argued that this was wrong and had the court return the funds to his client.

Nanaimo BC, Provincial Court. February 2011. Offense: Production and possession of more than 3 kilos of pot. The Crown said that the grower was producing over 200 plants. The lawyer for the defense successfully convinced the crown to reduce the charges. Then, he got the court to grant a conditional sentence of nine months. The Crown then asked that the grower be disallowed from possessing grow equipment, but the Court rejected that request.

Vancouver Court. Fall 2010. Offense: Production of Marijuana; Possession of Marijuana. The issue was whether the search warrant used by police was valid and legal. This was a 250 plant grow show. The Crown tried to argue that the grower knew about and was in control of the grow op. The defense lawyer convinced them to drop the charges. The grower didn’t get a record.

Provincial Court, Abbottsford. Fall, 2010. Charge: Possession and cultivation of marijuana. The grower possessed more than 1000 plants in a huge grow op. His lawyer negotiated a plea bargain that had his client admit to possession of only 63 clones. That equates to a guilty plea to possession of less than three kilos. Three month’s conditional sentence, and no jail time.

Supreme Court, Williams Lake. May, 2010. Charge: Possession and production purpose of trafficking marijuana. Offence: The grower was caught by police with a 5000 plant plus grow operation. The grower’s lawyer made the case that the police breached the grower’s rights when they got him to confess. The defense lawyer went to court and argued his way to a plea bargain. Crown had wanted a sentence of two years, but it was dropped to a 12 month conditional sentence without house arrest, no electronic monitoring and no probation.

A review of these charges and the results are educational. The punishment handed out was very lenient. Some growers escaped without any criminal record. It’s pretty clear that BC is soft on marijuana production and possession.

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