USE GROWING LIKE A WEED

TORONTO - Marijuana activist Eric Wood doesn't need a Statistics Canada
study to know more people than ever are refusing to pass on the grass.
The manager of a cannabis production facility for a Toronto compassion
club said support for a legalization festival he's helping to organize
this year is exploding.

"We are going nuts with this festival as it seems to be growing
exponentially every day," said Wood of his Aug. 21 Canabian Day
Festival. It started last year as a small legalization rally and has
grown into a three-city event that will attract thousands to Toronto,
Hamilton and Niagara Falls. "We are now being approached by sponsors
who want to have their logos on our ads, flyers and posters."

The StatsCan survey had people buzzing yesterday because it showed the
number of Canadians, age 15 or older, using marijuana has nearly
doubled in 13 years.

Michael Tjepkema, a StatsCan analyst, said a reason for an increase is
that pot is more acceptable now.

LAWYERS, DOCTORS

Wood can point to lawyers, doctors, and teachers who smoke pot and
support legalization efforts and provide anecdotal evidence to support
Tjepkema's assertion.

"The dim-witted, lay about stoner stereotype is an inaccurate and
damaging representation of the cannabis community," an Ontario teacher
said yesterday. "I've known, and continue to meet doctors and
teachers, successful entrepreneurs, mail carriers and social workers,
even a priest, who all prefer a joint and tea to a gin and tonic."

StatsCan's study indicates about a third of the population admits to
trying cannabis at least once and more people were taking five other
drugs: cocaine or crack, ecstasy, LSD and other hallucinogens,
amphetamines (speed), and heroin.

Overall, 2.4% of Canadians 15 or older reported using at least one of
these drugs in the past year, up from 1.6% in 1994. An estimated
321,000 people, or 1.3%, had used cocaine or crack, making it the most
commonly used of these other drugs.