GET OFF THE POT

Re "The rights side of history," City, Dec. 24: "Ironically, these
regulations made way for an unexpected shift towards decriminalization
when, in 2003, a Supreme Court ruling said that allowing access to pot
without providing a legal supply is unconstitutional. And for a brief
period in Ontario during that year, marijuana was actually
decriminalized." Man, are you misinformed. The Parker and Hitzig
rulings struck the prohibition of marijuana possession down as
unconstitutional. The 2003 ruling was a simple possession case that
was fought using Parker and Hitzig, and it struck down the prohibition
again.

Pot was never "decriminalized" - the law was struck down. There is a
difference. Possession of pot had been legal since Parker, but the
courts, cops and government chose to completely ignore all of this,
and another court ruling re-criminalized possession. That ruling is
bogus because, in Canada, a court cannot resurrect a dead law, only
parliament can revive dead laws - and they never did that. So really,
pot is still legal, has been since the Parker ruling, and every single
pot bust since 2000 has been unconstitutional and illegal.

So much for Canada being a "just society."

Russell Barth, Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User, Patients
Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis