CANNABIS CONNUNDRUM

Winter Games decision fires up debate on pot

They're parents now, but they started it all in the flower-power days of
the late '60s and early '70s. So it's no wonder these aging baby boomers
are having a tough time telling the kids that smoking marijuana is such a
terrible thing.

In fact, the only thing that really terrifies them is that their kids will
end up with a criminal record for doing something they did themselves.

Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati has galvanized public debate once
again on the issue of cannabis, and whether having it or smoking it should
be a criminal offence in this country.

Canadians were shocked, then ultimately relieved, when the International
Olympic Committee first took away, then reinstated his gold medal after
traces of marijuana were detected in a drug test after his win.

``It's the best thing that's happened for the cause. I feel sorry for the
young man but he doesn't know how much he's helped the movement,'' enthused
Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young, who came of age in the '60s and
devotes his time to legal cases that advance the cause of decriminalizing
marijuana.

Canadian nationalism and pride galvanized support for Rebagliati, he said,
``but they were saying, `Why are they making such a big deal about
nothing?' To get Canadians to start saying that is what ultimately will put
enough pressure on the government to take some action.''

Many people will read the Olympic decision as a mild endorsement of
marijuana as a drug that is ``not destructive to the individual, to society
or to organized sport,'' Young said.

At least 3 million Canadian adults admit they've smoked marijuana at some
point, making it the most frequently used illicit drug in the country.

Marijuana use peaks among 16-year-olds in Grade 11, where 42 per cent
report having used it at least once in the past year. Then it gradually
declines to 6 per cent of those aged 40 to 49. But the numbers using it in
every age group dropped in the '80s, the era of U.S. president Ronald
Reagan's ``Just say no'' drug campaign, when people were ``scared to
death,'' Young said.

But all that has changed since 1992, as cannabis use in every age group has
gone up. Between 1993 and 1995, its use among students in Grades 7 to 13
posted an unprecedented rise from 12.7 per cent to 23 per cent.

That's probably because of a generational effect, says Dr. Perry Kendall,
president of the Addiction Research Foundation, one of countless groups
that support decriminalizing marijuana.

``We're seeing kids entering their teen years whose parents are more
tolerant,'' he said. ``Whether it ties in with the return of platform heels
and bell-bottoms, I don't know.''

But for 25 years, ever since the Le Dain Royal Commission concluded
cannabis was not a harmful drug and its sale and use should be put under
controls similar to alcohol, Canadians have supported removing it from the
Criminal Code.

Surveys by public opinion firms and Health Canada have consistently found
that about 70 per cent of Canadians think cannabis laws are too harsh.

But in ``one of the great mysteries,'' as Young puts it, instead of moving
toward more leniency, as much of Europe and Australia did, the federal
government moved in 1992 to double the penalties for marijuana possession.

The bill was roundly criticized by such conservative groups as the Canadian
Bar Association, the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian Centre on
Substance Abuse and the Addiction Research Foundation, all of which argued
that continuing to control marijuana through criminal law served no
purpose.

The Liberal government eventually backed off and passed a law in 1995
allowing first-time possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana and a
gram of hashish to be treated as a summary offence carrying a maximum fine
of $1,000 and/or six months in jail. For a second offence, it doubles to
$2,000 and/or 12 months in jail.

While many receive much smaller fines, those convictions still result in a
criminal record - with all the ramifications that can have on a young
person's life - and their numbers are rising every year.

A total of 47,000 cannabis charges were laid in 1996, up from 33,000 in
1991. Toronto police charged 2,020 people with cannabis possession last
year, up from 1,174 in 1996.

Young estimates that $1 billion a year is spent in Canada ``manufacturing
criminals out of law-abiding citizens who simply adopted a lifestyle
choice. People are starting to question that.''

`Criminal sanctions are probably excessive'

Even the normally staid Addiction Research Foundation questions it. ``We
think criminal sanctions are probably excessive and they don't really seem
to work,'' Kendall said. ``They probably cause more harm socially than
good.''

Cannabis convictions increased 670-fold between 1965 and 1990 but had no
significant impact on the drug's use in Canada. The attitudes of family and
friends seem to have more of an influence, he says.

In focus groups last year, the foundation discovered that it's not the
rebels who smoke marijuana, he says. ``It's the popular kids, the
achievers, kids who party, kids who have friends.''

And apart from its bronchial effects on heavy users and the risk to
pregnant women and schizophrenics, ``it is a relatively non-toxic drug,''
Kendall said.

``There are remarkably few toxic side effects you can actually attribute to
cannabis.''

Kids should be given truthful information about cannabis, he said, much as
they are about alcohol - another drug that is illegal for those under the
age of 19 but which is treated entirely differently.

``We give our kids some understanding, knowing they're going to encounter
alcohol. We encourage them to hire limousines for the grad parties, knowing
they'll be drinking even though they're under-age. It's a more pragmatic
approach - it doesn't mean we're encouraging kids to drink.''

He worries that without that education, kids will throw out all the
messages they are getting on drugs and experiment with more serious ones as
well.

That's why Robin Ellins launched The Friendly Stranger, a ``cannabis
culture shop'' on Queen St. W., where the emphasis is on educating the
public about the drug.

Kids of 14 and 15 experiment with drugs because that's the age when you
experiment, Ellins said.

A young person who finds out that marijuana doesn't cause the ``reefer
madness'' he's been warned about is going to wonder if adults lie about
every drug, he said.

``If he gets offered cocaine at a party he's apt to say, `Gee, they lied to
me about marijuana, maybe they're lying about this, too.'

The only good thing about the Olympics case, Ellins said, is that it has
pulled the issue into the international spotlight.

``When enough people understand that cannabis is not a killer like alcohol
or tobacco, things will change. But it has to hit a critical mass.''

And so far, despite public opinion, there seems to be no political will to
do that.

``I don't think anybody wants to be seen to be soft on drugs,'' Kendall
said. ``I don't think policy makers see huge gains to be made- but perhaps
electoral losses - in moving to decriminalize it.''

The only breakthrough has been in the courts, which have moved tentatively
to allow its use in medical treatment.

In December, Terry Parker of Toronto won a 20-year legal battle to use the
drug to treat his epilepsy when a judge in Ontario Court, provincial
division, stayed charges against him of cultivation and possession.

AIDS specialists have endorsed the call for medical marijuana

And Young is acting for another Torontonian, Jim Wakeford, who has AIDS and
is taking the federal government to court, fighting for the right to use
marijuana as medicine - and is demanding that Ottawa supply him with the
drug.

A group of 50 doctors who are AIDS specialists have endorsed the call for
medical marijuana because patients who use it have shown improvement.

Young also acts for hemp stores across the country that have been charged
for selling drug paraphernalia.

He has succeeded in having the section of the law that barred the sale of
drug literature struck down as unconstitutional because it impedes freedom
of speech.

``I have been pushing the limits of the law as far as I can in court,'' he
said, ``and I will continue doing it for the next couple of years.''

In the meantime, the number of charges for marijuana possession continues
to rise ``and many people's careers are destroyed as a result of indulging
in this,'' Young said.

Contents copyright (c) 1996-1998, The Toronto Star.