JUDGE MAKES B.C. HISTORY WITH POT RULING

Simple possession of marijuana is no longer illegal in B.C., a
provincial court judge has ruled.

The decision by Judge Patrick Chen in the Crown's case against Kurtis
Lee Masse makes B.C. the fourth province, along with Ontario, Prince
Edward Island and Nova Scotia, in which the law has been struck down.

Courts in Alberta and Saskatchewan have ruled the other way.

The confusion around the state of the law arose after an Ontario
Appeal Court judge struck down the law in July 2000 and gave
Parliament one year to pass a new one.

That has yet to happen.

Three high-profile possession cases have been appealed to the Supreme
Court of Canada. Once the high court makes its ruling, that will be
the law of the land.

But for now, any judge of the B.C. provincial court would be bound by
Chen's decision, Masse's lawyer Troy Anderson said yesterday.

"I've been receiving e-mails throughout the day from people who are
pretty happy with this decision," he added. "It's potentially a very
important case.

Anderson stressed the ruling does not affect the law against
possession for the purposes of trafficking or other more serious
crimes -- just simple possession.

"This is a great victory for advocates of freedom and personal
responsibility," said Kirk Tousaw, policy director of the B.C. Civil
Liberties Association. "Prohibiting cannabis possession is irrational.
It's a relatively harmless plant . . ."

Chen's Sept. 4 ruling, released yesterday, is not binding on B.C.
Supreme Court judges. If the Crown appealed Chen's ruling, a Supreme
Court judge could overturn his decision.