Marijuana Militia

Legal Defence Kit

Print a copy PDF

View as HTML

Greetings! and thank you for consulting this legal defence kit.  

It is free of charge, but it comes with instructions and warnings and advice.

Equipment required: a printer with paper, a stapler, a pen, and a literate mind.

Instructions: print the 10 pages, keep this page of instructions separate from the other pages,
and staple the other 9 pages together, in the following order:

Now put your pen away in your purse or your pocket, and read the stapled pages carefully, in order. The letter to the judge is the easy part. The next page is full of details that you don’t need to worry about unless and until you are presenting your case in court. Read the 6-page legal argument, which has been written as clearly as I can manage.

If you don’t understand it, discuss it with someone else who might. But don’t expect to understand every detail of it. You are not required to understand it, or even agree with it, however, to have the right to make your case based on it.

If you wish to understand it further, please consult my more detailed and articulated analysis.

Will this legal defence succeed in your case?  I don’t know.  It represents both the best understanding I can personally reach of this area of the law as well as the best prospect for a dismissal of charges or even a general stay of proceedings.  I believe it will persuade many judges, but I know it will not persuade all of them. 

The more often it is used, the more often it will succeed, I think; and the more often it succeeds, the less credible the law will become; and this line of defence will become more powerful. So do use it if necessary; it may be sufficient.

If you have been arrested and are in legal jeopardy, then your best hope of safety is a good lawyer who knows your individual situation, together with these constitutional argument materials, which can easily be assembled by your lawyer into the appropriate motion.

If you choose to defend yourself without the assistance of someone qualified to plead for you, then you are acting against my advice, and I need to warn you that nothing is entirely predictable in a courtroom; it has often happened before that a correct and logically irresistible argument has been incorrectly rejected by a judge, and the accused has been incorrectly convicted. Please don’t make light of this risk.

I take hope from noting that the first time that Ed Pearson tried this line of defence, in the Oshawa case, it worked.  Having worked, and with the Oshawa declaration as well, this winning technique is even stronger.  But ‘stronger’ does not mean ‘invincible’, and Canadians accused under this discredited and invalidated law will still need to struggle for justice, and some will be convicted unjustly, until the enforcement of the law is abandoned.

I would appreciate detailed feedback from Canadians who have been accused and have presented this defence to a trial judge.  Please take notes if you can, during or soon after your court hearing, about what was said, and what was decided.  Your feedback based on your court experience may contribute to a stronger version of this self-defence. 

Send your information to:  thepotheadprofessor@thepotlawhasfallen.ca

Good luck!  I hope you meet with success, as did the lads in Oshawa.

Print a copy PDF

View as HTML

Prof. Doug Hutchinson
Fellow of Trinity College

Professor of Philosophy
University of Toronto

Popularity: 6% [?]