JUDGE DEFENDS USE OF POT

A lengthy case over the butt of a marijuana joint ends with an absolute
discharge.

There is no evidence marijuana use causes health problems, and the laws
prohibiting the substance cause harm to society, a B.C. provincial court
judge ruled Monday.

But Judge Frances Howard said she could not overturn the nation's pot laws
on a constitutional challenge because Parliament still has the legal right
to outlaw marijuana.

``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,''
the judge said Monday in a decision handed down after a five-year court
battle.

``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,'' the judge said.

She said the social harm associated with the pot laws include disrespect
for all laws by up to a million people prepared to use pot and a lack of
communication between young persons and their elders about the drug.

She said there is no evidence that marijuana induces psychosis in healthy
adults, or that it is addictive, is associated with criminality, or that is
is a gateway drug to other, harder drugs. The ``vast majority'' of pot
users do not go on to try hard drugs, she said.

``There have been no deaths from marijuana,'' she said, adding ``assuming
current rates of consumption remain stable, the health-related costs of
marijuana use are very, very small in comparison with those costs
associated with tobacco and alcohol consumption.''

She was ruling in judgment of Randy Caine, a 44-year-old Langley man
arrested in Surrey in 1993 for possession of a butt of a marijuana
cigarette weighing one gram, or 0.01765 ounces.

Caine admitted his possession of an illegal drug, but his lawyer John
Conroy called a number of expert witnesses to argue that the country's pot
laws contravene Canadians' rights to liberty if they are doing nothing to
harm others.

After Howard ruled Monday that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms did not
protect him, Caine entered a plea of guilty and was given an absolute
discharge, meaning he pays no penalty and does not have a criminal record.

Both Conroy and Caine said they would study the decision to determine if
there are grounds to appeal.

Conroy and other lawyers across Canada are eager to challenge the
marijuana-possession laws in the Supreme Court of Canada, hoping the high
court will overturn the laws.

Howard said she could not throw out the country's drug laws because it is
up to Parliament and legislators to enact laws and the federal government
fears the number of chronic users -- those using one or more marijuana
cigarettes a day -- might escalate if the drug is legalized.

Of the one million Canadians estimated to use marijuana, about five per
cent are considered chronic users, the judge said. They can suffer the same
respiratory ill-effects as tobacco users, although ``these costs are
negligible compared to the costs associated with alcohol and drugs,''
Howard said.

``It is for Parliament to determine what level of risk is acceptable and
what level of risk requires action.''

Caine also argued he had a fundamental right under the charter to have
marijuana as long as he wasn't harming anyone else, but Howard said she was
bound by earlier court rulings that the charter does not guarantee a right
to possess pot.

Howard noted the federal government added marijuana to the list of outlawed
drugs in 1923 after a series of ``sensationalist articles'' were published
in Maclean's Magazine on the supposed effects of marijuana use, including
claims the drug caused mental illness and death.

``They consisted of reckless allegations of fact which were, quite simply,
untrue,'' the judge said.

``All the witnesses from whom I have heard. . . appear to agree that there
is no evidence to suggest that low/occasional/moderate users assume any
significant health risks from smoking marijuana, as long as they are
healthy adults and do not fall into one of the vulnerable groups, namely
immature youths, pregnant women and the mentally ill.''