WHY DOES ACTIVIST RISK HIS MARRIAGE, LIVELIHOOD, LIBERTY?

You'd think a pot activist would be able to take a long, deep breath.

But oh no.

Once Chris Goodwin gets on his high horse, it's hard to bring him down.

You see, pot is his life. His reason for being on this earth. It is
his passion. His calling. His religion. His career.

He talks about it endlessly. Breathlessly. Obsessively. Sometimes
even articulately.

Chris is the 26-year-old owner of downtown's Up in Smoke cafe. I have
called him to confirm that he is on trial today. This time he is
facing one count of possession of cannabis resin. He is, of course,
fighting it.

Chris has been in the media a lot since he opened Hamilton's first
pot cafe in August 2004. There have been countless stories about what
goes on at his establishment, about police going in and out of there,
of his involvement in pro-pot rallies and decriminalization protests.
I once wrote about the Children's Aid Society investigating Chris and
his wife after a cop reported the couple smoked up every day while
raising their infant son. The CAS concluded the child was being well
cared for and no action was taken against the Goodwins.

So while readers may know who Chris is and what he stands for, there
is nothing quite like the experience of actually talking to him.

To reach him yesterday, I started by phoning the cafe. That's where
I've always found him before. But these days, he's under a court
order not to go to his place of business on King Street East. It's a
condition attached to one of the numerous outstanding
marijuana-related charges he is facing. Today's trial is the first of many.

The old home phone number I have for Chris won't work either. He
doesn't live there anymore. He and his weed-smoking wife have split
up. She couldn't take it any more -- the activism, the arrests, the stress.

So I get him on his cellphone. As always, Chris is more than happy to
chat. To debate. He is unfailingly polite and accommodating.
Completely jazzed. The court case? You want to know about the court case?

And thus, the rant begins.

"It was roaches in the ashtray," he says at his usual lightning pace.
From there, he backs up to give me a long, detailed play-by-play of
the events leading to his arrest. Who said what. Who did what. Deep
background on each and every person in the cafe at the time of the
arrest. The names, ranks and career history of each cop involved.

Yes, it was his ashtray. His and the Hamilton Compassion Society, an
organization he began to supply medical marijuana users with the
necessary supplies. But it wasn't his marijuana remains in the
ashtray. Therefore, the charge is completely bogus. He will prove in
court that he knows the law better than his arresting officers.

He directs me to specific sections of the Criminal Code. To case law.
He rhymes off web addresses for pro-pot sites (including his own
Hamilton Hash Mob Forum) and tells me which ones have webcam images
of his arrest. He recites statistics that range from the number of
medicinal marijuana users in Canada to the number of oppressed
cannabis farmers in small, downtrodden countries.

Chris launches into a monologue on what he does and doesn't do at the
cafe. He does sell bongs and pipes and detox kits for people who need
to clean up before giving their parole officer/doctor/CAS worker a
urine sample. He doesn't sell marijuana. Though he can tell you who
does and where to find them.

We're a long way into this rambling when I finally get a question in.

Why?

Why is pot so important to Chris that he is willing to risk his
marriage, his livelihood, his freedom for the right to get high?

Because cannabis is "a noble plant." Because he wants freedom and
justice for the medical marijuana users. Because of the impact pot
laws have on the lives of all those who are arrested for smoking or
selling or growing weed. Because he's a "freedom activist" who cares
about global issues such as the economic impact on pot growers the
world over. Because he can't, in good conscience, tolerate the
"prohibitionist type atmosphere" and "cultural genocide" that has
made the war on drugs the most expensive war in the history of the
world. Because he doesn't believe in the gateway theory that says pot
use will lead tokers to harder drugs.

"Being a cannabis activist is the most worthwhile thing anyone can
do. It's the most worthwhile cause I could put all my soul and heart
and energy into it."

An hour passes and he is still talking in circles that hang oddly in
the air before fading away like the smoke he fights for.