Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jun 2003
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.fyiottawa.com/ottsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Matthew Hulett
Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk

BLOWING SMOKE

Justice Micheline Rawlins of Ontario Court No. 10 dismissed 22 possession 
cases last week because there is no law banning marijuana possession. This 
actually should have happened under the Parker decision two years ago.

I hope the cops do illegally detain and steal licit compounds like 
marijuana from the Ontario public. I want to see them get sued. Royally. 
Jim Leising is blowing smoke, and not the kind some of us enjoy in what is 
called a "shotgun." He is appealing in the very court that issued the 
Parker decision. They will lose, and lose badly.

Unless someone can show all of us that the sick and dying have been given 
adequate access to medical marijuana, that marijuana is being handled like 
any other drug. Do not make me laugh. The Leisings of the world are just 
stalling. I do not think your judges will let them get away with it. It is 
immoral to persecute the sick and dying because you wish to lie to 
children. And, so shall it be.

If your Parliament cannot come to grips with reality, your possession laws 
will merely fade away. A damn good thing. Too bad the judges in my country 
are willing to allow the sick and dying to be sacrificed to an ideology 
that has demonstrated it does not work.

I must say, watching this process unfold has been fascinating, albeit 
waiting two years beyond the time limit set by Parker was most tedious. 
Time flies when you are not sick and dying.

Matthew Hulett

Brick, N.J.

(At the rate our governments and courts work, you may just have to wait a 
little more ...)
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom