TIME TO AMEND MARIJUANA LAW

Ottawa has two choices after yesterday's landmark court decision calling
for the decriminalization of marijuana. It can rewrite its restrictive drug
law or it can appeal the ruling.

Either way, Canada would be better off. Legal clarity is badly needed on
this issue.

The current regime, which allows desperately ill individuals to apply for
exemptions from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to use marijuana
for medicinal purposes, is unfair and impractical.

Even when an exemption is granted, it is often impossible to obtain the
drug legally.

Yesterday's long-awaited ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal will force
the federal government to come up with a better system.

The court struck down the 77-year-old law making marijuana possession
illegal. It deemed the statute unconstitutional because it fails to take
into account the needs of the sick and dying who use the drug as medicine.

If Ottawa does not amend the law within 12 months, the court stipulated, it
will no longer be a crime to possess marijuana.

Yesterday's judgment was the latest chapter in the long struggle of
Torontonian Terry Parker, who uses marijuana to ease his epileptic
seizures. He has been arrested and charged repeatedly for cultivating and
smoking the drug.

Finally, in 1997, an enlightened judge ruled that Parker had a
constitutional right to grow, possess and smoke marijuana as part of his
medical treatment. ``It does not accord with fundamental justice to
criminalize a person suffering from a serious chronic medical disability
for possessing a vitally helpful substance not legally available in
Canada,'' Judge Patrick Sheppard wrote.

That judgment was confirmed yesterday.

But the Appeal Court went further. It asked Ottawa to enshrine the legal
right of individuals such as Parker to use the drug medicinally without
fear of prosecution.

The federal government has the option of appealing the ruling to the
Supreme Court of Canada.

That would at least bring an end to 30 years of legal wrangling. It would
determine, once and for all, whether and under what circumstances, it is a
crime to use marijuana.

Ottawa's least advisable course of action would be to do nothing. By
failing to act, it would forfeit the chance to differentiate between the
medicinal and recreational use of marijuana, as well as demonstrating a
lack of leadership.

While Justice Minister Anne McLellan decides whether to overhaul the
controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Health Minister Allan Rock could do
his part by ensuring that those who apply for exemptions from the act to
cope with debilitating disease receive swift, compassionate approval.