TOKER TO APPEAL ROACH RULING

Photo caption: Pot's not so bad, said the judge, but Randy Caine is guilty.

A pot smoker who has fought a five-year battle for dope-smokers' rights is
vowing to fight on.

Randy Caine, 44, of Langley, says he'll appeal his conviction this week for
possessing a roach -- the butt of a marijuana cigarette -- in White Rock in
1993.

"If the Crown won a victory, it was a hollow victory," Caine said
yesterday. "The court said the law has no integrity."

Caine argued he had a right to have pot under the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms as long as he wasn't harming anyone else.

Provincial court Judge Frances Howard said she was bound by earlier court
decisions to rule that the Charter did not give Caine the right to possess
pot. Caine pleaded guilty and got an absolute discharge, meaning his
conviction is not recorded and he pays no penalty.

Howard said in her ruling there is no evidence marijuana causes health
problems, and the laws prohibiting it harm society.

"The occasional-to-moderate use of marijuana by a healthy adult is not
ordinarily harmful to health, even if used over a long period of time," she
wrote.

"Countless Canadians, mostly adolescents and young adults, are being
prosecuted in the criminal courts, subjected to the threat of -- if not
actual -- imprisonment, and branded with criminal records for engaging in
an activity that is remarkably benign... [while] others are free to consume
society's drugs of choice, alcohol and tobacco, even though these drugs are
known killers."

Lawyer Peter Durovic and assistant Andrea Turton, marijuana-legalization
advocates at the Hemp B.C. Legal Assistance Centre on Hastings, say they
were sandbagged by the Crown.

They say "back-room dealing" stalled the Caine case while other cases set
precedents.

"We are a bit disappointed," Durovic said.

Dr. Doug Coleman of New Westminster, who treats addictions, said more than
2,000 scientific papers outline the hazards of smoking dope, from lung
disease to raising the risk of getting AIDS.

"Having a respected person like a judge leave the impression that smoking
marijuana is not a health hazard can send a very misleading and dangerous
signal to the public," he said.