'BUYERS' CLUBS' TO HAWK MARIJUANA

Activists will break law to force politicians to hash out policy

A group of young Ontario activists plans to flout the law in a bid to push
lawmakers and the courts to accept marijuana as a medicinal drug.

The 10-member group is organizing illegal "buyers' clubs" across
southwestern Ontario for patients whose doctors advise them to smoke
marijuana, the Citizen has learned.

This is no back-alley drug operation. The activists, most of them
hemp-store owners, will risk convictions, fines and possibly jail time for
trafficking cannabis in a battle they have decided to make very public.
They will not attempt to evade police or hide their cannabis clubs, they
say.

At least one of the clubs in Toronto is already selling medicinal
marijuana. The others intend to illegally open for business in the near
future -- unless the government acts fast.

A letter signed by the store owners was dispatched yesterday to the federal
government informing authorities of the plan to open a buyers' club and
asking for exemptions to allow the clubs to operate legally. The group gave
the government until Feb. 12 to respond.

"We are dealing with life-threatening illnesses and enormous suffering, and
I do not think it is fair to perpetuate this suffering simply because the
medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry have demonstrated
indifference to this issue," wrote Alan Young, an Osgoode Hall law
professor, on behalf of the group.

He expects the government will reject the letter, which will prompt the
group to sell marijuana illegally. The need for a supply network for
medicinal marijuana is "urgent and compelling" and it will operate with or
without authorization, the letter says.

The move is part of a snowballing effort by advocates to push judges and
politicians to allow the medicinal use of marijuana.

A recent Ontario court ruling gave Terry Parker, a Toronto man with
epilepsy, the constitutional right to grow and smoke marijuana. But the
ruling was seen as a specific exemption for Mr. Parker, rather than a
precedent applying to anyone.

"It's ridiculous, it's ludicrous," said Peter Young, one of the hemp-store
owners (no relation to the group's lawyer). "If the courts say it's OK to
use marijuana, then how are they (patients) supposed to get it? We really
don't have a choice" but to provide the drug illegally.

The members of the group, who met this week in Toronto, say they will sell
marijuana only to people with official doctors' notes, and will not take
any profits from their trade.

They are hoping the Parker decision can be broadened to include others with
medical marijuana needs. The government, meanwhile, is appealing the
decision.

The message the buyers' club group is sending to lawmakers is straightforward:

"The government has an obligation under the Constitution to set up the
infrastructure to allow people to access this form of medicine," said the
group's lawyer, Mr. Young, in an interview.

"If they are remiss in their obligation, then the people will be the
guardians of the Constitution. And they will do it regardless of what the
legal regime says, or doesn't say.

"We would all prefer to do this legally, but failing that, civil
disobedience will be the path to take." Mr. Young, a high-profile activist
for decriminalization of marijuana, said he has made it clear to the group
the actions it plans are illegal.

The plan to open buyers' clubs are the last in a stream of events
orchestrated by activists to bring the issue to the political fore:

- - An Ottawa physician, Dr. Don Kilby, applied to Health Canada for
permission to supply Jean Charles Pariseau, of Vanier, with marijuana to
help relieve some of his AIDS symptoms. A Health Canada official said the
government is willing to approve the use of marijuana as a legal medicine
in emergency situations. But Dr. Kilby says the government and its
bureaucracy is making it very difficult to get anywhere with his
application.

- - An Ontario court judge rejected in August a constitutional challenge by
London cannabis-crusader Chris Clay. But the judge agreed that marijuana is
relatively harmless compared with alcohol and tobacco, and he said elected
politicians -- not the courts -- must lead the way in establishing public
policy on the issue.

The group of buyers' club organizers are willing to risk jail time and
criminal records for their cause. But they are a mellow bunch of cannabis
smokers, most of them in their 20s, and they don't appear too stressed
about the possibility of being incarcerated.

"If that's what it takes," said Jeanette "Star" Tossounian, a 22-year-old
whose mother helped finance her hemp store, Guelph's Seedling Clothing Co.
"Nothing seems to worry me too much. I'm not just gonna sit back and take
this. I feel I believe in the cause."

"We really don't have a choice," said Peter Young, who is "almost sure"
he's 27. Mr. Young (no relation to the group's lawyer) recently took opened
the Organic Traveller in London, a hemporium with a marijuana history
museum and library in the back.

Warren Hitzig, the 21-year-old Toronto entrepreneur who is already running
a buyers' club, said the group is simply heeding the views of American
civil-rights activist Martin Luther King in risking arrest for their cause.
"It takes one person to break down a wall, so that everyone can follow,"
Mr. Hitzig said.

Ottawa's hemp store, Crosstown Traffic, has not yet joined the buyers'
club. But owner Mike Foster said he supports the group, and would consider
organizing a local club. Another Ottawa resident, 38-year-old Ron Whalen,
says he has been informally supplying people with marijuana for medicinal
use for the past year, although he is not affiliated with the activists'
group.

Despite the pro-marijuana momentum, succeeding in the political arena will
be a challenge.

Political parties have shied away from the issue of decriminalization since
the LeDain commission recommended a review in 1972. The Liberals promised
decriminalization in their 1980 throne speech, but didn't follow through.
In 1996, a multi-party Senate committee planned to look at the issue, but
relented when the proposition was rejected by party caucuses.

Since November, smoking and growing marijuana for medicinal purposes has
been essentially legal in California and Arizona, after voters showed
strong support for decriminilization in the last U.S. election.

In Canada, a buyers' club in Toronto recently failed because it was unable
to attract members; the group blamed the law for forcing it to operate in a
clandestine fashion. But with about 100 members, the Cannabis Compassion
Club in Vancouver continues to sell marijuana to sick people without
harassment from police.

Mr. Young says police in fact "promote crime" when they enforce existing
laws against selling and growing marijuana. On one hand, Mr. Young reasons,
the Parker ruling suggests that sick people can smoke marijuana to relieve
their symptoms. But since the law doesn't allow anyone to sell it, that
forces patients unable to grow it themselves to break the law and buy it on
the black market. "We're trying to stop crime from happening."

"Hopefully, the government will listen," said Ron Hill, who owns Hemptastic
stores in Mississauga and Etobicoke. "But it's not the government -- it's
the people who must hear us."