POT TOO MILD TO BE CRIMINAL, LONDON CASE LAWYER ARGUES

TORONTO -- Smoking pot should be legal because it's harmless compared
with other drugs, a lawyer will argue today before Ontario's Court of
Appeal.

Alan Young is challenging a lower court ruling that convicted
recreational pot smoker Chris Clay in London, despite the trial
judge's finding 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
charges for selling cannabis to an undercover police officer.

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

Justice John McCart of Ontario's Superior Court said he believed
pot-smoking was harmless and caused no serious physical or
psychological damage and that it didn't lead to the use of other drugs.

But the judge ruled it would be up to Parliament to determine what's
illegal and said the drug charges didn't infringe on Clay's
constitutional rights.

Today's appeal comes one day after federal Health Minister Allan Rock
said he would notify 14 more people with serious illnesses they can
use marijuana for medical purposes

Not everyone was keen yesterday to hop on the pro-pot
bandwagon.

"I don't think legalization is a good idea at all," said Bill
Corrigall, a scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
in Toronto.

He said there's a big difference between exempting a few users for
medical reasons and essentially allowing the general public to toke at
will.

"Marijuana is a dependence-producing drug that can impair performace
and judgment."

Corrigall is most concerned about what he calls the "intoxication"
issue.

"Any intoxicating substance changes how you operate a motor vehicle
and you can't do a roadside test for marijuana use because of the way
the drug distributes in the body. There's one big problem," he said.

"How are you going to regulate its use in a way that society overall
manages itself responsibly so we don't increase roadside
fatalities?"

Young scoffed at such concerns, saying in tests most stoned pot
smokers were too paranoid to get behind the wheel.

"In many driving studies they can't even get the cannabis user to get
in the car to drive," he said.

Clay and Young vow to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court
of Canada if need be.