MEDICINAL POT USER AWAITS OTTAWA'S NEW RULES

Wakeford, Charged With Marijuana Possession, Says Current Legislation
Doesn't Work

For a drug raid, it was a polite affair. Before charging Jim Wakeford with
marijuana possession and seizing 254 cannabis plants, drug squad officers
helped him carry his apple crumb pie from the car.

But Wakeford, who made a brief court appearance yesterday in connection
with the March 2 raid, thinks the "decency" of individual officers belies
the indecency of a federal scheme for allowing sick Canadians to smoke dope.

The statutory exemption that shields him from prosecution as long as he
possesses no more than 30 grams of dried marijuana and seven plants is
insufficient to meet his medical needs, says Wakeford, who has AIDS.

The limit is too small, he argues, and there's no immunity for other people
who grow and supply him with the drug.

Sources say Health Minister Allan Rock may unveil new regulations tomorrow
that spell out criteria for granting exemptions from criminal possession
laws for both sick people and caregivers who help grow or obtain the marijuana.

But Wakeford's lawyer, Alan Young, is skeptical.

The federal government argued against caregiver immunity when it squared
off against Wakeford's legal team in the Ontario Court of Appeal on the day
of the raid.

The three-judge panel reserved its decision and Young thinks the health
department is trying to create the impression it's moving forward on the
issue so the court won't order the government to also grant caregiver
exemptions.

"I think they're floating the caregiver issue to influence the courts,
that's my opinion," Young said in an interview. "I don't know definitively
and I could be wrong, but I don't think there's a lot to it (the proposal).

Roslyn Tremblay, a health department spokesperson, cited the fact she
doesn't know who the source is as the reason she couldn't comment on the
issue of caregiver immunity yesterday. She added she doesn't know what new
regulations will say.

But last month in the Court of Appeal, Ottawa was doing everything to keep
the judges away from the issue. Wakeford was asking the court to order
Ottawa to grant his caregivers an exemption and do all it can to find him a
source of the drug. Federal lawyer Roslyn Levine urged the court to reject
the requests.

One of her main arguments was that Wakeford's lawyers were in the wrong
court. If they were in the right place, Levine argued, the court should
still reject the idea of caregiver exemptions because it could only result
in an unwieldy, unmanageable system.

Young suggested making it easier by giving Ottawa the names of caregivers.

But the federal government took the view that Wakeford isn't in a situation
of imminent peril or danger without a supply of marijuana from other people
and can cultivate it himself.

Wakeford, who was also pulled over a few days after the raid and charged
with possessing about a pound of marijuana, says he finds it difficult to
grow because his health is frail and he tires easily.

He says he was planning to share the plants that were seized at the house
in Udora and the pound he was carrying in his car with other chronically
ill friends.

Late last month, Young sent a letter to the head of the federal justice
department's criminal prosecution office in Toronto, listing the names of
14 of Wakeford's friends who have exemptions. He demanded that "all of the
medicine be returned" to his client and the charges withdrawn.

Wakeford repeated the request in the Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket
yesterday but was told the court didn't have the jurisdiction to make the
order. His case was remanded to May 16.

With files from Leslie Ferenc