ENLIGHTENING RULING ON POT, AND THE LAW

For 20 years, Terry Parker was hounded by police, charged repeatedly and
hauled before the courts. He once spent two months in jail. His crime: He
cultivated and smoked marijuana to ease his severe epileptic seizures.

Finally, this week, an Ontario judge treated Parker like a human being, not
a chronic lawbreaker. Judge Patrick Sheppard ruled that the 42yearold
Toronto man has a constitutional right to grow, possess and smoke marijuana
as part of his medical treatment. ``It does not accord with fundamental
justice to criminalize a person suffering from a serious chronic medical
disability for possessing a vitally helpful substance not legally available
in Canada,'' he said.

This enlightened judgment gives other Canadians with serious illnesses an
important precedent to use in challenging Ottawa's restrictive marijuana laws.

It does not mean every individual who uses the drug for medical reasons can
do so without fear of arrest. Nor does it mean that marijuana will soon be
available to those seeking relief from the symptoms of glaucoma, AIDS,
multiple sclerosis or the nausea that often accompanies cancer treatment.
But it is a welcome and overdue step in that direction.

According to a recent poll, 83 per cent of Canadians believe that
marijuana, used for health purposes, should be legal. Sheppard's ruling
begins to bring the law into line with public attitudes.

There are those who worry that Sheppard's judgment will pry open the door
to the decriminalization of marijuana for recreational use. He was careful
to specify that the ruling applied only to cases where the substance was
believed by doctors to be vital to an individual's health. But he
acknowledged that marijuana appears to be ``relatively harmless'' compared
with alcohol and tobacco, which are legally available; does not appear to
be addictive; and does not lead to criminal behaviour.

That is about as far as the courts can go in signalling that Parliament
might want to overhaul the Controlled Substance and Abuse Act. It is now up
to Justice Minister Anne McLellan to decide whether to proceed. Groups
ranging from the Canadian Police Association to the Addiction Research
Foundation have urged Ottawa to decriminalize marijuana. At the very least,
the government should let Canadians debate the issue.

Last year, Canadian police made 29,562 arrests for marijuana offences. One
was Parker. The cops will never again barge into his apartment and seize
his marijuana plants. But others should not have to fight as long and as
hard as he did for medical relief.