COMPASSION CLUB DIRECTOR SAYS LAW IS A 'NON-STARTER'

Cultivation still illegal. Harsher penalties for growers will make it
'harder for me to find honest people'

Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is blowing smoke with his proposal
to decriminalize simple pot possession, marijuana advocates say.

The legislation falls far short of legalizing pot or its cultivation for
recreational or medicinal use, noted Marc-Boris St-Maurice, director of the
Montreal Compassion Club, a non-profit organization that acquires and sells
marijuana to about 300 walk-in and Internet clients with medical conditions.

"This law is a zero, a non-starter," said St-Maurice, who is also leader of
the Marijuana Party of Canada. "With harsher penalties for the growers,
it'll make it harder for me to find honest people to work with."

He declined to identify the source of the Compassion Club's pot supply.

Dylan Maxwell, owner of Je L'Ai, a Duluth Ave. shop specializing in hemp
products and pot paraphernalia, says the drug law leaves the cultivation
and sale of marijuana largely in the hands of criminal organizations.

"The problem with the law is that it doesn't allow people to grow marijuana
for themselves," Maxwell, 36, said. "That change would take the money and
power away from the biker gangs."

Fines for simple possession are a big improvement over arrest and a
criminal record, he conceded, but the impact will be minimal in big cities,
like Montreal, where police rarely bother with small-time pot users.

"It's bait and switch," St-Maurice said of the proposed legislation, which
includes $245 million for law enforcement and anti-drug campaigns.

"The bait is that you won't saddle kids with a criminal record, and the
switch is another drug war, take 2.

"It's just made it easier for Montreal cops to give out tickets, instead of
getting rural cops to ease up on arrests."

Maxwell conceded that decriminalization might ease pot users' paranoia
about carrying marijuana on them in public.

"The (new) law is better for older people for whom a $100 fine is not a
huge sum of money and who know they won't face the risk of a criminal
record if arrested, " he said.

Outside, a customer lit up a homemade joint.

The man, who did not want his name used, said he was arrested a decade ago
for simple possession of marijuana and later given a conditional discharge.

Decriminalization won't go far enough to even the score, he said. "It's
better than the existing law, but why do we have to be ticketed at all? Why
not ticket people for drinking alcohol?

"This is still not justice."

Health Canada spokesperson Jirina Vlk said the government is "looking at
all the options" for the medicinal use of marijuana. But there are no
immediate plans to allow the sale or purchase of the drug.