Hemp retailer is set to fight drug charge

He aims to have narcotics laws struck down
By Catherine Dunphy Toronto Star Staff Reporter

This is one marijuana charge neither the accused nor his lawyer wants to
go up in smoke. In fact, London hemp shop owner Chris Clay intends to
go all the way to the Supreme Court in order to beat the charges of
trafficking and cultivation he'll be facing in a London, Ont., courtroom
today.

And while he's at it, he'd like to strike down Sections 4 and 6 of the
Narcotics Control Act or, in other words, legalize marijuana.

``I think I've got a good shot,'' said Clay, 26. ``These laws should
have been changed before I was born.''

Clay faces charges stemming from police raids in 1995 and 1996 on his
store, Hemp Nation, after one of his staff sold an undercover officer a
marijuana seedling or ``clone.''

He has already spent a total of five days in jail and he and his
employee could face life imprisonment if convicted of trafficking.

But even Clay admits there's little chance of that. ``Serving jail time
(for convictions) is rare now,'' he said.

He considers himself more an activist than retailer.

His lawyer agrees.

``My client is a political activist,'' said Osgoode law professor Alan
Young.

Young intends to argue this case in two parts. The second part is a
constitutional challenge based on the argument that people have the
right to make autonomous decisions with regard to their ``bodily
integrity.''

`We are working on the principle it is beyond the authority of
Parliament to criminalize harmless conduct.''

But first Young will state no one can prove whether the seedlings sold
by Clay were marijuana or hemp.

And that no one can prove they were a prohibitive substance containing
more than 0.3 per cent of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in
marijuana. That amount is considered the threshold level for
intoxication.

Young said hemp, or fibre cannabis, was once a cash crop in southwestern
Ontario during World War II.

It was considered the source of the strongest rope and was so important
to the war effort the government offered subsidies to farmers to grow
it.

``I will argue that there is a strain of cannabis which is not
intoxicating and that it is absurd and arbitrary to prohibit fibre
cannabis,'' he said.

``I will have to persuade the court fibre cannabis or hemp is not
covered by the Narcotics Control Act.''

If Young loses the first round, he'll move on to his constitutional
challenge.

``We'll prove marijuana is relatively harmless and may be the safest
psychoactive substance,'' he said.

``There are more hospital admissions in the U.S. from ASA complications
than from marijuana.''