POT RELIGION HAZY

Tough To Prove: Judge

Officials would have difficulty weeding out posers from believers
applying to smoke pot as a holy sacrament, an Ontario Superior Court
judge said Friday.

"The nature of a religious belief ... is dealing with innermost
feelings," Justice Thea Herman told George Filipovic, a lawyer
defending one of two "minister-members" of a marijuana-dedicated
Toronto church.

He and co-counsel Paul Lewin suggested Parliament let applicants seek
cannabis licences on religious grounds. They are defending their
client's claims that weed puts them in contact with God.

"No one is really going to go through the procedure unless they are
sincere," Filipovic said during final legal submissions in what is
believed to be the first Canadian court case asked to define a
religion and judge if the Charter of Rights protects its currently
illegal practices.

Accused of selling pot to undercover cops, Peter Styrsky, 53, and
Shahrooz Kharaghani, 31, minister-members of the G-13 Mission of God,
a Church of the Universe branch, were arrested on trafficking and
crime proceeds charges in 2006.

Herman said she will render her decision Nov. 29.