To good people everywhere , today we had two matters in Newcastle Local and District Court. First “cab off the rank” at 9.30am was Dr Andrews first mention for the criminal charges allegedly mentioning the name of a certain child on Facebook who was unlawfully removed from his loving family some months back. Andrew has 5 charges I however have 10 and like myself the good Dr elected a jury and intends to plead not guilty to all charges. The matter has been adjourned until the 6th April that puts it together with my court date for this same matter. That all went pretty smoothly however I do feel that when Andrew elected a jury ( which means this matter is destined for the district court) and he said ” this matter is far too important for a magistrate ” we did all duck for cover , Fortunately the magistrate took it in his stride …. phew. The second matter was BJ’s first mention in the district court for his medicine grow back on Dec 1st 2016 with his honour R Ellis. BJ and Judge Ellis have met before so the first mention was quite cordial and Judge Ellis appeared very compassionate to the facts of this matter , that is , it was a medicinal cannabis grow, there were some interesting points raised by his honour as to where medicinal cannabis now stands legally compared to Dec 2016 , nobody appeared to have a quick answer on this. BJ raised the argument of why he was charged under the drug misuse act when cannabis is not a drug it’s s food and providing medicine is not a misuse but a matter of medical necessity. The matter has been adjourned for two weeks as judge Ellis still it appears , wishes for BJ to have a defence with representation but in my understanding BJ wishes to continue unrepresented as like myself and the good Doctor we feel the truth is enough………. too be continued xxx Pastor Paul