TRIAL TO HEAR TESTIMONY FROM SENATOR WHO BACKED MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

A Canadian senator who has called for the legalization of marijuana
took the stand yesterday in the trial arising from a raid on the
Vancouver Island Compassion Society's grow operation.

Pierre Claude Nolin chaired the Senate Special Committee on Illegal
Drugs, which unanimously called five years ago for legalization of
the drug in Canada. The committee recommended the government license
production and sale of marijuana, which would be available to any
Canadian citizen over the age of 16.

The Tory senator, who has said the drug should be regulated like wine
and beer by the government, was called to testify by the defence,
which is mounting a constitutional challenge to Canada's
medical-marijuana regulations. The Compassion Society is trying to
prove that the regulations force people to use the black market,
interfering with their charter right to security of person.

Nolin has not yet given evidence -- he was examined and
cross-examined all afternoon on his credentials. The Crown even
quizzed him on the British colonial annexation of Hong Kong and the
Opium Wars of the 19th century.

On trial are Michael Swallow and Mat Beren, 33, both charged with
possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and production
of marijuana.

RCMP arrested the two men in May 2004 when officers raided a house
near Sooke used by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society to grow
marijuana for its 600-odd members.

Compassion clubs are a North-America-wide phenomenon where people
join together to supply marijuana as medicine.

Canada's medical-marijuana regulations, developed in response to
earlier court rulings, allow people to use marijuana for medical
purposes -- for example as an appetite stimulant for HIV patients.

Those approved as medical-marijuana users can grow it themselves, or
designate someone to grow it for them under special conditions. They
can also buy it from the government, which commissions a company to
grow the plants in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man., but
users have complained the government-produced pot is poor quality.
Most end up buying pot from illegal sources, critics say.

The trial continues today with Nolin still on the stand.