Pubdate: September 9, 1997

Source:  Montreal Gazette
Contact: Pot smokers scoff at court rulings

by Elizabeth Bromstein, Special to The Gazette

Pot makes me do funny things. The last time I smoked a joint, more
than a year ago, I got sick, paranoid and almost had to be taken to
the hospital.

I also got an inexplicable urge to call my mother and confess every
single little sin I ever committed, beginning with that first game
of doctor at the age of 5. Mom doesn't need that kind of
aggravation. Neither do I. So I stay away from pot, preferring to
stick to legal, but not necessarily less dangerous, drugs like
alcohol and cigarettes.

I am, however, practically the only person I know who won't touch
cannabis products. I know occasional smokers, allday smokers and a
fistful of dealers. I am not acquainted with anyone who has never
smoked pot.

Nobody seems to care that it's illegal. Why should they? It's a dumb
law.

Chris Clay of London, Ont., has been going head to head with
Canada's legal system for the past two years with this argument.
Clay was facing possession and trafficking charges for selling small
plants and hemp seeds in his London store, Hemp Nation.

"The law is arbitrary, irrational and unconstitutional, based on
Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," he says. "Ideally,
marijuana should be legalized with age limits and quality controls."

In his decision on Aug. 14, Judge John McCart of Ontario's Superior
Court agreed that marijuana is relatively harmless and, furthermore,
stated that North America's drug laws are out of step with the rest
of the Western world. Clay, however, lost and was sentenced to three
years probation and a $750 fine. The case is under appeal.

Meanwhile, in Quebec, seven men were arrested Saturday morning on a
marijuana farm for possession of nearly 2,000 cannabis plants. The
cultivation of cannabis plants is punishable by up to seven years
imprisonment. Great. As if the city wasn't dry enough this summer for
pot smokers.

Cigarettes and alcohol, two known killers, are legally available to
the public and marijuana is not. How much sense does this make?

None. Even Corporal Jacques Bordeleau of the RCMP education
anddrugawareness program is with me on this one. Sort of.
Bordeleau doesn't think that marijuana should be legalized. He does,
however, agree "absolutely" that alcohol and cigarettes should be
illegal as well, if only to make it fair.

Maybe I'm just mistrustful of cops, but I was surprised to find
Bordeleau to be a personable, helpful and reasonable man. He is
quick to disregard the widespread myth that pot smoking leads to
harder drugs.

"It's not true that you're going to end up doing PCP, coke or heroin
if you smoke a joint," he says. And he is not unreasonable about
experimentation. "I don't see a difference between a young person
going into a bar and ordering a drink or having a joint. They are
experimenting. It's when they get hooked that it becomes a problem."

It's true that people do get hooked. Anyone who says cannabis is not
addictive is full of it. I've seen heavy pot smokers develop a real
craving for the drug. They get cranky, nasty and impatient when it
isn't immediately available. I pointed this out to a friend of mine
one day when he was particularly grumpy due to lack of available drugs.

"Smokers get grouchy when they can't have a cigarette. Alcoholics
get grouchy when they can't have a drink," he snapped at me.

"Go to hell," I muttered, unable to come up with a better rebuttal.
Because he was right.

The pot smoker should have the same rights as the drinker or
cigarette smoker. Who are we to dictate a hierarchy of addictions?

Besides, most pot smokers are occasional users. A joint once in a
while is no worse than a couple of beers.

Bordeleau argued that marijuana is no longer a soft drug. "Local THC
(cannabis) levels in the '60s and '70s were about 0.5 per cent. Now
with hydroponic growth and other types of cultivation, they are up
to around 20 per cent or more. And with hashoil levels can go up to
60 per cent. It is not the same drug it once was."

An article in the latest High Times, a New Yorkbased marijuana
culture magazine, counters this assertion, stating that a small
number of lowcannabis samples seized by police are often used to
calculate a dramatic increase in potency. And that the early samples
are not representative of the marijuana generally available to users
during that era. So who knows? The RCMP has a vested interest in
stopping marijuana. The people at High Times have a vested interest
in promoting it. Both of these arguments sound credible to me.

According to a Health Canada survey on alcohol and other drugs,
published in the fall of 1995, 69.1 per cent of Canadians feel that
marijuana should be decriminalized. 14.1 per cent had no opinion and
only 16.8 per cent felt it should be fully illegal. Maybe we should
vote on it. Isn't that what democracy is for?

It's time for a complete overhaul of our drug laws. We should have
the right to control our own bodies and suffer the consequences. As
for the "think of the children" argument, imposed age limits would
make cannabis harder for kids to obtain, not easier. Drug dealers
would have to find something else to do if you could just walk into
a store and buy pot.

Bordeleau is adamant that marijuana will never be legalized. He
might be right, but it doesn't really matter. People will continue
to do what they please.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.