DRUGS AND THE POLICE

Pot Possession In The '60s Was A Serious Offence. A Baggie Would Get
You Jail Time

In 1967, John Conroy was a clean-cut University of B.C. student and a
member of the varsity swim team. It wasn't until after he graduated
that he formed the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws (NORML) in Canada, becoming its first president.

"I wasn't really a flower child until the mid-1970s when I moved to
the [Fraser] Valley and bought some acreage," Conroy recalls. "It was
like a commune -- we had three or four families living on the property.

"People talk about the Sixties but much of it happened in the Seventies."

Now a white-haired lawyer known for his high-profile legal challenges
of marijuana laws, Conroy has fought cases at every level of court,
including the Supreme Court of Canada.

One of the latter came in the case of David Malmo-Levine, who was
busted for running a marijuana "harm reduction" club in Vancouver,
selling pot at cost to those who signed a form promising not to
operate heavy machinery, including cars, while under the influence.

Conroy said the nation's top court found the law prohibiting pot
possession for personal use was grossly disproportionate in relation
to the potential harm, but deferred to Parliament, deciding it was up
to the politicians to change the law.

"I think they got scared -- and ducked," he now says of the Supreme
Court of Canada ruling.

He said possession of pot in the 1960s was a serious offence. "People
would do jail time for a baggie.

"Once I formed NORML, I was giving free legal advice to a lot of
people," he recalled.

NORML's mandate: to eliminate all civil and criminal penalties for
private marijuana use, believing the present policy of discouraging
marijuana use through the use of criminal/civil law has been
excessively costly and harmful to both society and the individual.

Pot offences were fairly rare in the mid-'60s but began to skyrocket
in the early '70s, when there was a national debate to legalize
marijuana, Conroy said.

He recalled the landmark LeDain Commission of Inquiry into the
Non-Medical Use of Drugs, which began in 1969 and issued its report
in 1972, recommending marijuana be removed from the Narcotic Control
Act and that the provinces control possession and cultivation,
similar to government controls on the use of alcohol.

"Every single one of the commissions has said this is pretty benign
stuff," Conroy says. "We're still fighting it and we've still got
people going to jail."

(The LeDain commission interviewed former Beatle John Lennon and his
wife Yoko Ono for the report. "The one thing that can be said about
marijuana is it's non-violent," Lennon said. "If any government
wanted to use it to calm people, they have got the ultimate weapon.")

Pot was made illegal in Canada in 1923, when it was included as a
prohibited substance under the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act, but the
first seizure of marijuana cigarettes wasn't made in Canada until the 1930s.

During that time, the Toronto Daily Star wrote an article calling
marijuana a "shocking new menace" and quoting a U.S. narcotics
official saying: "Hideous crimes have been committed by smokers of
these cigarettes. ... Our files show that many victims are confined
to institutions for the insane after smoking these cigarettes for a
period of time."

Similarly, during a parliamentary debate from the 1930s about banning
marijuana cultivation, the U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics, H.J.
Anslinger, was quoted saying marijuana was the "assassin of youth."

The reality was, marijuana busts were rare in Canada until the mid-60s.

In 1956, for example, there was one case of marijuana possession. By
1966 there were 112 cases, the first time the number had exceeded 100
in Canada.

A year later, there were 447 cases, jumping to 817 in 1968. By 1972,
the number had reached a staggering 10,695.

During the 1970s, simple marijuana possession was not considered a
serious offence. Usually a judge would impose a small fine for a
small amount, less than an ounce.

But those convicted came to regret it, finding it affected future
employment and they were barred entry in the U.S. in the 1980s, when
a zero-tolerance policy was imposed, affecting those with criminal records.

Today, an estimated 600,000 Canadians have been busted for pot
possession. A recent United Nations drug report said five million
Canadians smoked pot in 2004, the fifth-highest percentage of usage
in the world.

But few people want to talk publicly about their youthful
experimentation with pot and other illegal drugs in the '60s,
especially in the Internet era, when a U.S. border guard can do a
Google search for evidence of illegal drug use.

That happened last year to 66-year-old Vancouver psychotherapist
Andrew Feldmar, who was barred from entering the U.S. after a border
guard did a Web search, finding an article about Feldmar's LSD
experiences, which he wrote about in 2001 for the scholarly journal Janus Head.

Feldmar has no criminal record. But after admitting he was the author
of the article, Feldmar was held for four hours, fingerprinted and
asked to sign a statement admitting his drug use of LSD.

He says he won't apply for a waiver to allow him entry to the U.S,
where his son and daughter live.

Conroy is still battling Canada's marijuana prohibition, recalling
there have been many politicians -- Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark, Jean
Chretien -- who have promised to reform the law, taking away the
stigma of a criminal record for small amounts of pot possession.

"Nothing really has happened," Conroy said, pointing out the Fraser
Institute estimates the province's marijuana industry brings in $7
billion a year, making it B.C.'s largest cash crop.

"Let's regulate this stuff, tax it and get on with it," he said.
"Alcohol does more harm. Prohibition simply creates a black market
and feeds organized crime."

Former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell agrees, saying the law should
impose a fine for small amounts of pot, instead of a criminal record.

Campbell, who has never smoked pot but was a Vancouver RCMP drug
squad officer in the early 1970s and later B.C.'s chief coroner, says
marijuana should be legalized and taxed.

"I think we could make a ton of money off this and fund health care,"
he said. "I don't think it is the demon it's made out to be. People
who smoke it are not devilish fiends. I'd be willing to bet that 95
per cent of the 600,000 [Canadians busted for pot possession] never
had a problem with police before."

Randy White, a former Fraser Valley Conservative MP and now president
of the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, believes the legalization
debate is over. The solution to Canada's drug problems is effective
treatment and national prevention programs, he says.

"The House of Commons is not going to deal with that [legalization],"
White said. "What's the point of rehashing this, pardon the pun, when
it's not going to happen in the foreseeable future."