OTTAWA TO APPEAL BC POT RULING

A B.C. provincial court judge's ruling that the law governing marijuana
possession is invalid will be appealed, a spokeswoman for the federal
justice department said Thursday.

A notice to appeal has been filed, said Lyse Cantin, spokeswoman for the
department's B.C. region.

Police and the B.C. solicitor-general were quick to insist earlier this week
the ruling does not make marijuana possession legal and is not binding on
other judges.

Ironically, the appeal was celebrated by the B.C. Marijuana Party.

"That's a good thing for everyone, I would think," said spokesman Marc
Emery, who was planning a pot-smoking protest outside Vancouver police
headquarters Thursday.

"It'll be appealed to B.C. Supreme Court and they'll rule in the favour of
the judge," he predicted, calling the Sept. 4 ruling "iron clad."

In the ruling, Judge Patrick Chen wrote that, in his view, "Section 4 of the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, as it applies to marijuana, ceased to
be valid legislation after July 31, 2001.' "

The date refers to the expiry of a one-year grace period set by an Ontario
Court of Appeal ruling from 2000 that Chen referred to in his judgment.

The judge wrote that the Ontario decision "severed the marijuana possession
prohibition from other parts of Section 4 of the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act and declared it to be invalid, but suspended the declaration
of invalidity for a period of one year 'to provide Parliament with the
opportunity to fill the void.' "

A spokeswoman for Vancouver's police department said earlier this week she
hadn't heard of any fallout so far from the ruling.

New legislation was proposed earlier this year to decriminalize marijuana
possession.