'HEAD SHOP' OWNER TAKES CRUSADE TO COURT

Saskatchewan Man Opposes 'hypocritical' Marijuana Laws

Mike Spindloe wanted to make a political statement about Canada's drug laws
when he began selling hash pipes and scales at his Saskatoon record store
three years ago.

Today, about 8,000 pipes later, he hopes to make a legal statement too.

Mr. Spindloe will be in a Saskatchewan court challenging the
constitutionality of a 10-year-old law that makes it a crime to sell
"instruments for illicit drug use."

The so-called drug paraphernalia law carries a maximum fine of $100,000 and
six months in jail for a first conviction and $300,000 and a year for
subsequent offences.

Mr. Spindloe's is the latest battle in the legal war being waged in courts
across Canada to decriminalize marijuana.

"The cannabis laws are wrong and if individual people don't stand up and
try to change them, nothing will ever happen because we have no political
leadership," said the 36-year-old owner of Vinyl Exchange in downtown
Saskatoon, who admits he's been an avid pot smoker for 20 years.

"It's just hypocritical for them to make cannabis illegal at the same time
they sell us tobacco and alcohol. As a recreational drug, it's far less
harmful, both in terms of social consequences and potential physical health
consequences, than either tobacco or alcohol.

"People aren't violent when they smoke dope, they're more than likely to
just grab a movie and a bucket of popcorn."

Mr. Spindloe is represented by Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young, one
of the leaders of the recent cannabis court crusade.

"This is one more step towards the goal of decriminalization or
legalization, to get the government to reconsider their very misguided and
myopic drug policy as it relates to marijuana," said Mr. Young.

"We will chip away at the whole edifice of narcotics law enforcement. This
is a secondary, more minor offence that we feel it's necessary also to
challenge on constitutional grounds in order to get to the larger picture
of trying to move the government towards a more enlightened drug policy."

Mr. Spindloe's downtown store was raided by Saskatoon police last May and
about $4,000 worth of pipes, scales, roach clips, rolling paper, hemp
cookbooks and cannabis cookbooks were seized.

He was originally charged with selling both instruments and literature for
illicit drug use but the literature charges, related to magazines such as
High Times and Cannabis Canada, were recently dropped.

The law that bans literature about drug use was declared unconstitutional
four years ago by an Ontario judge and never appealed.

Mr. Spindloe says the paraphernalia law is not only a "knee-jerk reaction
to the conservative, right-wing war on drugs in the 1980s," it is
ineffective to boot.

"The law is supposed to somehow prevent people from having access to
cannabis, but it is completely ineffective for that because I'm preaching
to the converted. If I sell somebody a pipe, it's not because they're
thinking of going out and smoking marijuana, it's because they've already
got some and they want something to put it in.

"If I can sell 8,000 pipes without putting so much as a line in the
classifieds in the newspaper, obviously there's a pretty large cannabis
community that's letting each other know about my place by word of mouth."

Unlike the criminal prohibition against marijuana, which dates back to the
1920s, the paraphernalia law is a much more recent parliamentary creation
- -- it began life as a private member's bill introduced in 1987 by
Conservative MP and former cop Bob Horner.

Mr. Horner told the Commons his bill, supported by the RCMP, police chiefs
and school principals, would help shut down the hundreds of "head shops"
that sell drug paraphernalia even though the drugs themselves are illegal.

"I believe that there are unscrupulous people who do not care if they leave
a trail of heartbreak behind them. They are in it for the money," the MP
said when he introduced the bill.

"They are in it for the money. They set up these shops next to video
arcades where young people happen to be and they glamourize drug use. They
sell products which tell the youth of our nation that drugs are the
greatest thing that ever happened and that without drugs they cannot get
along."

It is extremely rare for a private member's bill, especially in criminal
matters, to become law and Mr. Young believes MPs "really didn't consider
its implications."

The Criminal Code section defines an instrument for illicit drug use as
"anything designed primarily or intended under the circumstances for
consuming or to facilitate the consumption of an illicit drug."

Since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not protect economic liberty,
Mr. Young has been forced to challenge the provision as "vague and
overbroad" and therefore contrary to the constitutional guarantee of life,
liberty and security of the person.

In his written submissions, the professor argues the law is too broad
because it converts "innocent instruments into illegal contraband" based on
the intent and use of the purchaser.

"The net of criminality is widened too broadly by the failure of the
legislation to provide any exemptions for instruments used for legitimate
medical use, for scientific research or for the public good.

"(It) overshoots the mark by criminalizing conduct which is unnecessary for
the achievement of the state purpose of curbing and combatting the illicit
drug trade."

During debate, one NDP MP complained the bill was so poorly drafted it
could outlaw things such as razor blades, syringes, bobby pins and even
crisp twenty dollar bills, which can all be used to consume drugs.

Last month, the paraphernalia law was upheld in Newfoundland by a judge who
ruled the prohibition does not "chill" legitimate businesses and Mr. Young
plans similar constitutional challenges later this year on behalf of hemp
stores in Kingston and Stratford, Ont.

"These minor offences are all part of the government's effort to sweep
everything under the carpet, so that people don't talk about drugs --
that's why there's a prohibition on literature -- and people don't sell
items that may encourage or glamourize cannabis use."

There have been a series of constitutional attacks over the past year
against the marijuana prohibition -- the one major success came in December
when an Ontario judge ruled that Terry Parker could cultivate and possess
cannabis to control his epilepsy.

That ruling is being appealed by the federal government, though Justice
Minister Anne McLellan has said Ottawa is studying the issue of
legalization for medicinal purposes.