FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEFENDS MARIJUANA LAWS BEFORE TOP COURT

Despite federal plans to decriminalize marijuana possession,
government lawyers will try to persuade the Supreme Court of Canada
today that marijuana is a harmful drug that impairs motor skills and
increases the risk of accidents.

The Justice Department is challenging three men -- two from British
Columbia and one from Ontario -- who contend that outlawing marijuana
smoking violates their constitutional right to life, liberty and
security of the person.

"All three appellants seek to elevate a recreational pursuit to a
constitutional right," says a written submission from federal lawyer
David Frankel. "There is no free-standing right to get stoned."

At the same time Mr. Frankel is defending the federal law, his
political bosses say they will soon change it. This spring, Justice
Minister Martin Cauchon is expected to introduce legislation that
would decriminalize simple possession, so that people caught with less
than 30 grams of marijuana -- the equivalent of about 25 cigarettes --
would be punished with a fine rather than a criminal record.

The Supreme Court served notice last week to the lawyers in the case
that the hearing would go ahead, despite the plan to change the law.
The court had postponed the same case late last year on grounds that
Mr. Cauchon was promising decriminalization as he was instructing his
lawyers to fight marijuana smoking in court.

Mr. Cauchon says it is the government's duty to uphold the law as it
now stands.

"We will see what will take place in the future with regard to policy,
but at the time being, we have a valid piece of legislation that we
have to enforce and we'll do it."

Mr. Frankel has said that the case should proceed because there is no
guarantee the government will change the law, and even if it does, it
would not affect the three cases in question.

The litigants are David-Malmo Levine, a Vancouver activist who formed
the 1,800-member Harm Reduction Club for marijuana smokers; Victor
Caine, another British Columbian convicted of possession for sharing a
joint with his friend in a car while parked at a beach near Vancouver;
and Christopher Clay, who owned a store in London, Ont., called the
Great Canadian Hemporium, which sold marijuana and plant seeds.