LAW WILL GIVE POT POWER TO POLICE, SAYS PROF

CALGARY -- Police officers, not the government, will decide if possession of
marijuana is a criminal offence in Canada if the Liberal's proposed
decriminalization bill is passed by Parliament, according to an Ontario law
professor.

Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Hall at York University, said with
Bill C-38 the government is passing the buck to unelected beat cops, rather
than dealing with the matter itself.

"This government has to make a decision, and they're trying to defer it to
law enforcement officials -- and I think that is really a big mistake," said
Young during a Global Sunday panel discussion to air today.

The legislation proposes decriminalizing the possession of 15 grams or less
of marijuana. Police who catch people with small amounts of pot would have
the discretion to hand them tickets -- from $100 to $400 -- instead of
initiating criminal charges.

Currently, possession of any amount of marijuana carries a maximum penalty
of six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Young believes too much time and money have already been wasted trying to
keep marijuana possession criminal when the substance has been found by
several commissions of inquiry, including one recently from the Senate, to
be "a relatively benign substance."

However, Dan McTeague, a Liberal MP who has doubts about his government's
own bill, told Global Sunday host Danielle Smith decriminalization would,
for many, be confused with legalization. That could lead more people to
drive under the influence of marijuana, he said.

Debates around the bill may be moot, however, as Parliament may not have
enough time to debate it before its current sitting ends.

John Conroy, a B.C. constitutional law expert, said it would be a good thing
if the bill died because the bill would make it harder for those in need to
get marijuana for medical reasons.

Under current laws, doctors can prescribe any narcotic for medical
conditions, with the exception of heroin, where a person has to be a patient
of a hospital; or methadone, where doctors require special training, he
said. It makes little sense then, to exclude marijuana from this list when
it is so harmless -- less lethal than aspirin.

"The risk of harm to the user is primarily from the smoking process. It has
nothing to do with what's in the drug," he said.

"Complete legalization is the only thing that's acceptable in 2003."

Also interviewed during the program was Alison Myrden, a woman who suffers
from chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and associated facial pain.

To douse the agony, Myrden told Smith she consumes pot around the clock in
any way she can, by eating, smoking it and putting it in her tea. She claims
smoking it, however, is the fastest way to get rid of the pain she's
suffered for more than a decade.

"I'm only better because of things like medicinal marijuana," Myrden said.
"I'm dealing with the worst pain in the world."

Until recently, she claimed her mother and boyfriend spent about $1,200
every month on marijuana for her. They can't afford it any longer and she
now relies on donations, bags of which she displayed on the show.

For the long term, Myrden is considering starting a "collective of medical
exemptees" where people allowed to use marijuana for medical reasons could
buy in bulk and lower the prices they pay.