ARGUMENT GOES TO POT

TORONTO Smoking pot should be legal because it's harmless, a lawyer
will argue today before Ontario's Court of Appeal. Alan Young is
challenging a lower court ruling which convicted recreational pot
smoker Chris Clay despite the trial judge's finding that the drug
didn't do any harm.

Young argues Parliament has no constitutional right to criminalize
marijuana because it's so benign.

"Whatever evidence there is of harm is so inconsequential that it is
not worthy of criminal law attention," Young said.

"This substance has been called by learned academics, scientists and
jurists as one of the safest drugs in the history of mankind."

In 1997, Clay, 28, was convicted of drug possession and trafficking
for selling cannabis to an undercover police officer.

Clay, former owner of the Hemp Nation boutique in London, Ont.,
launched a constitutional challenge to Canada's marijuana laws.