CANADA SOFTENS ON MARIJUANA PENALTIES

Decriminalization, Medical Use Gain Momentum

TORONTO -(AP)- The Friendly Stranger used to be up a narrow stairway in a
back room, a crowded shop offering water pipes, T-shirts and other products
of the marijuana culture.

Now proprietor Robin Ellins has a prominent storefront on busy Queen Street
and plenty of room to display items ranging from hempseed oil and chips to
a full line of hemp clothing and elaborate smoking accessories.

The transformation from hidden emporium to thriving commercial venture is
part of Canada's slow but clear shift toward decriminalizing marijuana.

Justice Minister Anne McLellan said the issue should be studied, and a new
Parliament committee on drug matters will look at decriminalization.
Conservative Party leader Joe Clark is urging the elimination of criminal
penalties for possessing a small amount of pot.

"It's unjust to see someone, because of one decision one night in their
youth, carry the stigma -- to be barred from studying medicine, law,
architecture or other fields where a criminal record could present an
obstacle," Clark said last week.

The government has proposed expanding medicinal use of marijuana, and the
Canadian Medical Association Journal recently supported full
decriminalization. Canada's Supreme Court will consider a case this year
that contends criminal charges for the personal use of marijuana violate
constitutional rights.

Making possession and use of small amounts of marijuana a civil offense --
akin to a traffic fine -- instead of a criminal violation would move
Canadian policy closer to attitudes in the Netherlands and away from the
United States, its neighbor and biggest trade partner.

That worries U.S. antidrug activists like Robert Maginnis of the Family
Research Council. "It will have a residual effect in this country of
depressing prices and making marijuana more available," he said.

Canada already has a legal industry for hemp -- cannabis cultivated with
low amounts of the chemical that produces the high sought by marijuana
smokers -- while the U.S. federal government prohibits hemp production.

In April, Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock proposed expanding the
medicinal use of marijuana beyond cancer patients now allowed to take the
drug to people with AIDS and other terminal illnesses, severe arthritis,
multiple sclerosis, spinal injuries and epilepsy. By contrast, the U.S.
Supreme Court recently upheld a federal ban on medical marijuana.