Susan Lazaruk, The ProvincePublished: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Canada.com
A woman with a green thumb -- featured in Gardens West magazine for growing clematis that enveloped her small two-storey house in North Vancouver -- was growing more than the flowering vine. Judy Ann Craig lost her home when it was seized in a ruling by the B.C. Court of Appeal yesterday after she was busted for growing marijuana inside the house. Craig was originally given a year's conditional sentence, a $100,000 fine and a $15,000 victim surcharge after pleading guilty two years ago to production of a controlled substance by Provincial Court Judge Judith Gedye.
Federal Crown prosecutors won an appeal to have the $567,000 house in the Lonsdale area forfeited to the government as proceeds of crime under federal drug laws. Craig's lawyer, Howard Rubin, argued the law was designed to deal with organized crime, not an "independent" entrepreneur like Craig, but the appeal judges disagreed. The 54-year-old former realtor grew more than $100,000 worth of marijuana in her 1,000-square-foot home from 1998 until her 2003 arrest, court heard. Craig, who told court she used her earnings to improve her garden and posed for a 2002 gardening article, said customers included friends sick with AIDS as well as tradespeople and professionals. Her accountant had even filed tax returns, claiming 70 per cent of the house for business use, $30,000 in startup costs, plus the cost of hired help for trimming, cloning and transplanting. Craig now faces a $250,000 bill for unpaid taxes.
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