Source: Canadian Press
Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Canadian Press

Alliance MP Keith Martin is defending his push to decriminalize marijuana in Canada. The British Columbia MP is disputing claims that the move would lead to increased trafficking in drugs across the Canada-U.S. border.

Martin calls it "a waste of our over-taxed police resources" to go after individuals possessing small amounts of marijuana. He figures by decriminalizing the simple possession of the drug police resources will be freed up to go after the growers and traffickers of pot.

The RCMP and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police have endorsed his idea.

Martin says trafficking between Canada and the U.S. is primarily controlled by organized crime gangs moving large quantities of drugs.

Newshawk: puff_tuff
Source: National Post
Author: Joseph Brean, National Post, with files from The Canadian Press
Published: March 18, 2002
Copyright: 2002 National Post Online

A man who was granted temporary legal permission to smoke and grow marijuana to ease his epileptic seizures, has had the right extended until Parliament recognizes an Ontario court's ruling that the drug has medicinal uses.

Terry Parker said the ruling, which makes him the only lifetime legal pot smoker in the country, came as a bittersweet relief.

"Today's not too bad, got an extension, won't be going to jail [but] I should not be the only civilian in Canada to use marijuana for epilepsy," he said. "It should be people with cancer, MS [multiple sclerosis], the whole gamut."

Mr. Parker was first granted the right to grow and possess marijuana by an Ontario court in 1997, after a lengthy court battle over drug possession and trafficking charges.

He was convicted of trafficking after police seized dozens of pot plants from his home in 1996, and he admitted to sharing the drug with friends who he said also had seizures.

In a landmark decision on the case in July, 2000, the court dismissed a Crown appeal of Mr. Parker's exemption, and ruled that "prohibition on the cultivation and possession of marijuana is unconstitutional." The judge gave a one-year deadline before Canada's marijuana possession laws would legally "lack force and effect."

The deadline passed with no legislative response.

Mr. Parker, who once again faced prosecution for his use of marijuana, was given a six-month extension, which ended last week.

Mr. Justice Romain Pitt's latest ruling puts the onus back on Parliament to recognize the court's earlier decision that marijuana has medical uses, and protects Mr. Parker from future prosecution on possession charges.

Reefer madness was alive and thriving at the Third Annual Cannabis Convention in Victoria on Sunday.

But the crazed high had nothing to do with smoking marijuana. Rather, it came from talking about it.

If there was a stereotype personified at the convention at Camosun College, it was not that of a Rasta-haired, doobie-rolling dropout.

The stereotype apparent was that of the over-eager advocate expelling the fine-print and statistics from every badly reproduced pamphlet to major North American study on the myths of marijuana.

The seven scheduled speakers and delegates drifting the halls took every opportunity to extoll the virtues of ingesting hemp and smoking cannabis.

However, the myths are likely to persist as even organizer Ted Smith admitted that despite a good turnout for the convention, for the most part "we're preaching to the converted."

Smith, of Victoria's Hempology 101 Society, and others who want to see the hemp industry expand and marijuana legalized, hold out hope that if they continue to bolster the efforts of the converted, challenge the government through the court system, and speak out, change will come.

"I would rather the 60 per cent who do (believe) get together, get active and get empowered," said Smith.

James Geiwitz, who has a doctorate in experimental psychology from the University of Michigan, says the same "junk science" used in the 1960s to attack legitimate scientists researching the tobacco-cancer link is the same faulty science used to suggest hemp and marijuana is bad for one's health.

"There are absolutely no health risks associated with hemp foods," said Geiwitz.

Smoking B.C. bud on a regular basis will cause slight lung damage and respiratory problems but it has never been proven to lead to cancer or emphysema, said Geiwitz, one of seven scheduled speakers.

On the healthy side, Eric Hughes, representing Zima Foods Inc., promoted hemp foods as the only vegetable protein to contain all nine essential amino acids and a balance of the essential fatty acids -- Omega 3,6, and 9.

Hughes sells his products in stores like Lifestyles Market. He encouraged convention delegates to support the industry so that it can be legitimized and grow.

The chemical difference between marijuana and hemp is marijuana has as a main ingredient the natural drug tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the plant can be bred to have elevated amounts. Hemp has trace amounts.

Hughes doesn't smoke marijuana. "I don't have the need for an intoxicant in my life," he said.

However, Bruce Torrie does need a break from reality -- pain.

A former lawyer, Torrie smokes about 10 joints a day to relieve extreme back pain he suffered as a result of a head-on car collision in 1989, he said.

Marijuana is a far less harmful muscle relaxant than many of the anti-inflammatories and pain killers on the market, said Torrie, who has a prescription for cannabis.

"They estimate in between one and five million North Americans die each year from complications from taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatories," said Torrie.

That is the purpose of the drug war. It is doing the job it is intended to do.

After the microscope and telescope were invented they were made illegal. Opening a mind is a dangerous thing.

http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/ndrive/wj20020314.rm?start=2:01:16&end=2:32:06

You need RealPlayer to run it:

...Imagine the dea guys who get assigned to cover the convention,looking for even the most trivial of violations.

...my friends brother is a cop,,and he talks about the strange embarassment of busting people for weed,,knowing that most of the people being busted are just normal,kind,peaceful,good citizens..........I think cops battle guilt with anamosity...Cops should be depressed,but most of them are not because they are now trained in a very military type of program,and endoctrinated into a cult of enforcement,and stone cold obedience.......