COURTS

Prof waited decade for this

BILL IRONSIDE / The London Free Press

Paul Burstein, one of the lawyers in the Chris Clay marijuana case
which opened in London Monday, talks on the phone while taking notes
during a break outside the court. His traditional formal robes
contrast with the cellular phone and a red plastic pen in his pocket.

The Osgoode Hall lawyer finally got his chance to challenge the law
making cannabis use a crime.

Free Press Staff

An Osgoode Hall law professor who said he has been waiting 10 years to
argue the use of cannabis should not be a criminal offence in Canada
finally put the challenge before a London court Monday.

Alan Young, lawyer for Londoner Chris Clay, has said marijuana is a
relatively safe substance that does not justify a government ban and
that people have a right to determine how to treat their own bodies.

Clay, 26, owns the Hemp Nation store at 343 Richmond St.

Appearing before Judge John McCart of Ontario court, general division,
Young and defence partner Paul Burstein said they would argue
breakthroughs have been made in identifying what makes cannabis
intoxicating, and that incidental and personal use should not be a
criminal offence in Canada.

Young said he wants to prove the Canadian government has set a
toxicity level for marijuana plants because licensed experimental hemp
farms have to maintain plants with levels lower than three per cent.

ANALYST: Even if a marijuana substance is nonintoxicating, it can be
identified as a cannabis product and therefore comes under the
Narcotic Control Act, a government analyst said Monday.

David McLerie, a Health Canada laboratory specialist, testifying at
the trial, said most samples of plant and seed material seized from
Clay's retail shop on Richmond Street two years ago in a police raid
contained cannabis sativa.

Levels of toxicity were not determined and McLerie told defence
counsel it is possible to analyse and label a substance as a
prohibited cannabis material although it has no toxicity.

The trial, which is to include a constitutional challenge, opened with
Young admitting most of the circumstances surrounding the raid, arrest
and lab analysis.

He said he will be calling a list of experts on the subject over the
next three weeks. Among them is Heinz Lehmann, a member of the 1972
LeDain Commission which recommended the decriminalization of
marijuana.

The Crown case, handled by Kevin Wilson, will call its own experts on
toxicology and constitutionality.

The defence is being funded by "victory bonds" Clay has been selling
for months. Young said it is a "lowbudget defence" of "a few thousand
dollars."

Ironically, Young's day in court got its start almost inadvertently
May 17, 1995.

CRACK DEALER: City of London undercover drug officer Randal Bornais
testified he was trying to gain the confidence of a crack cocaine
dealer on a street corner near the Hemp Nation shop when he entered
the store to show the dealer he was "the kind of person who would buy
drugs."

"I would call it window dressing," said Bornais. He went in and "much
to my surprise, there were the plants," he said.

He met Jordan Prentiss, a store employee and fictitiously described
the bad luck he had been having growing his own marijuana plants.
Prentiss, also charged with narcotics offences, showed Bornais some
seeds and a flat of seedlings described as clones.

Bornais said he would come back and see Clay to buy a seedling.
Bornais went to the police station where he consulted with superiors
and then went back and purchased a plant for $30.

He said he asked Clay if he was ever "hassled" about selling plants.
Clay replied the "cops have enough problems with crack, they don't
come in here."

Det. Tom Gaffney said he consulted with senior officers before
proceeding with the purchase from Clay and obtaining a search warrant.

Gaffney told the court it was "unusual" to raid a hemp shop. He said
his superiors would want to know if the drug squad was doing something
unusual or a "high profile investigation."