T.O. MAN LOSES BID FOR LEGAL GRASS

A Toronto man living with AIDS has lost a bid to have an Ontario court
exempt him from the law controlling the use of marijuana.

Jim Wakeford smokes about two marijuana joints a day and says they help him
with his nausea and loss of appetite -- both symptoms of the disease.

Wakeford, 53, was seeking an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act (CDSA), which prohibits the use and possession of marijuana
and other drugs.

"I feel that the government has deprived me of my constitutional right to
use marijuana as medicine to deal with AIDS," Wakeford said at a press
conference yesterday.

In a judgment released Tuesday, Justice Harry LaForme said that while the
law does infringe upon Wakeford's Charter rights of both his "liberty" and
"security of the person" -- those infringements are in accordance with the
"principles of fundamental justice."

"The infringement is not unconstitutional because the judge believes that
there is a provision available in the CDSA to obtain lawful access to
marijuana," Wakeford's lawyer, Alan Young, told The Toronto Sun.

That mechanism is a little-known special application directly to the
federal minister of health for an exemption.

Young says Wakeford plans to make the application.

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson