STOREOWNER ADMITS HE PUSHED HIS LUCK IN EFFORTS TO TEST CANADIAN DRUG LAWS

Chris Clay said he openly sold small packages of marijuana and placed
advertisements in his store window listing types of seeds as police
looked on.

Chris Clay agreed with Crown prosecutor Kevin Wilson that he "pushed
the envelope" leading up to the drug squad raid on his hemp store in
London two years ago.

Clay, proprietor of Hemp Nation store at 343 Richmond St., testified
in his own defence on several charges of possessing and trafficking in
marijuana that he was on a singleminded campaign to change marijuana
drug laws when he was arrested.

He and employee Jordan Prentice have pleaded not guilty to all
charges.

Clay, 26, told Ontario court Justice John McCart he "decided to take a
risk" by opening his hemp products store, hoping it would help finance
his lobbying for drug law changes.

He said he even got a government loan to start up his business. The
government official who visited him said that while the products were
"controversial," the business should be viable.

WROTE LETTERS:

It never was and still isn't, Clay told the court, but
he continued to lobby politicians, write letters to the editor and
distribute literature to "educate" the public.

He said he rented extra space for his store to establish a "museum" of
artifacts and literature to further his cause.

He said he began selling small packages of marijuana seeds on demand
from customers who didn't want to do business with drug dealers.

Police often visited his store during the two years he sold seeds and
could see the store window advertisement listing the strains of seeds,
but he was never arrested, he said.

Clay agreed he "pushed the envelope" by attempting to sell seedling
marijuana plants from the store. He said his hopes of obtaining any
legislative changes were frustrating.

"I knew there was a risk involved. My goal was to get before the
courts to get the public's attention," Clay said.

Politicians were reluctant to talk about marijuana laws because it is
"a political hot potato," Clay said. He said he thought the courts
might be one avenue.

He took in a flat of cannabis seedlings on consignment May 17, 1995.
Within four hours he was arrested, the plants and seeds seized along
with an inventory of clothing and other hemp products.

PARENTS SUPPORTED:

Clay's parents, Robin and Louise, testified they
support their son and have come "180 degrees" on their views of drug
law as a result of their son's research.

Robin said he has given financial support to keep the store open.

Clay's counsel, Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young, told the court
he is setting out to convince the court it has the right and duty to
review marijuana drug laws under the Narcotic Control Act as a
constitutional matter when bad law is made.

The legislative process has malfunctioned in this case, Young said.
"The court is obligated to look at it if policy runs counter to the
Constitution."

He said he would attempt to show parliament acted arbitrarily in
dealing with marijuana and it is a constitutional matter when people
are deprived of their liberty and they "have not really done anything
wrong."

He said he will also attempt to show marijuana is one of the safest
drugs under medical and nonmedical conditions.

In spite of polls that show the majority of Canadians favor
decriminalization of marijuana, and that a number of studies and the
LeDain royal commission have recommended it, nothing has been done, he
said.

Patricia Erickson, a sociologist and criminologist with the Ontario
Addiction Research Foundation, told the court all her studies over the
years and reports to parliamentary and senate committees and to the
LeDain commission lead her to believe decriminalization of simple
marijuana possession and the cultivation of small amounts cannabis
would be a partial solution or compromise.

OVERDUE:

She said the government should have done it 25 years ago so
the experience would be known and society could move to take further
steps in drug regulation.

Erickson told the judge she wanted to make it clear that she wasn't
advocating legalization of marijuana use.

Decriminalization is "an interim solution," she said. She defined
decriminalization as the elimination of penalties for simple
possession or use. She said largescale or commercial growing or
trafficking of marijuana should still be subject to penalties.

Decriminalization would remove the simple user from the black market
and out of circles where dealers of harder drugs operate, she said.

Erickson said smallscale usage is costly to police and it's a
question of priorities of where to put resources whether into
convicting and punishing simple users or going after underground drug
networks where huge profits are involved.

Another witness for the defence Monday was former London board of
education teacher Jeff Shurie who testified he lost his job even
before being convicted in 1992 of possessing and cultivating
marijuana.

He said he knew he could be fined if caught but didn't realize he
would loose his job.

He said he was growing and using marijuana because he preferred it as
a relaxant over alcohol for health reasons.