YOUR FATE IF ARRESTED FOR POT SMOKING? - YAWNING INDIFFERENCE OR STRIP SEARCHES

MONTREAL (CP) - Marc-Boris St-Maurice has been arrested so many times
for marijuana possession that he serves as a one-man clinical study in
the fate reserved for those caught with small amounts of pot.

The study's theme would be inconsistency.

The Montreal pot activist has been arrested about seven times and on a
handful of other occasions he's been left alone by police without so
much as a slap on the wrist.

His mishmash of experiences with authority offers a glimpse into a law
whose application appears at best erratic, and at worst improvised and
arbitrary.

The 38-year-old has been handcuffed, shoved into police cars, shared a
paddy wagon with an accused wife-beater and car thief, and had
officers sniggering at him during one of the strip-searches he's been
subjected to.

At other times, his breach of the law was met with yawning
indifference.

A few weeks ago he tossed away a joint as he bumped into two officers
on foot patrol down trendy St-Laurent Boulevard. St-Maurice was asked
for ID by the constables. After they learned and he'd founded the
federal Marijuana party, the three proceeded to have a spirited chat
about politics and federal cannabis laws before the officers walked
away and left him alone.

"It's totally random. It's like playing the slot machines," St-Maurice
said of police enforcement.

A Montreal cop who asked not to be identified said some of his
colleagues can spend an entire career on the force without ever
arresting any of the people they catch smoking a joint.

"To me, charging someone for pot possession is a waste of resources -
for police and the justice system. But some cops go by the book and
apply the law every time."

That split among law-enforcement officers over what to do with
marijuana cases is illustrated by the example of Jon, a Victoria
furniture-store manager who asked that his last name be withheld.

He left the store one night in 2003 still dressed in his work dress
shoes, shirt, and slacks, taking a walk through one of the grittier
parts of town to buy some weed for a party.

He didn't know he was being watched as he purchased $10 worth of
marijuana - enough for a couple of joints.

He turned around and made his way toward a friend's apartment. A
police van cut him off, one officer jumped in front of him and another
pushed him into a wall.

Acquaintances from the neighbourhood gawked at the scene and worried
about what Jon might have done.

He was handcuffed and brought into the van, which is where the
arresting officers had an open disagreement about what to do with him.

Jon recalls the younger cop saying to the older cop: "Should we just
let him go?"

The older officer replied: "No, we're taking him to the
station."

Jon decided to fight his case, instead of agreeing to pay a small fine
and doing community service. That triggered a six-month legal battle
that only ended when the officer who witnessed the transaction died
and the charges were dropped.

One police chief said officers rarely go looking for pot-smokers. But
they will make an arrest if they stumble into them.

It can be another crime or something as trivial as a burned-out brake
light that alerts police to the sight or the unmistakably pungent
smell of cannabis, said Peterborough police chief Terry McLaren.

"Probably seven out of 10 (possession busts) have been arrested on
another charge," said McLaren, also head of the Ontario Association of
Chiefs of Police.

"Or (they) were brought to the attention of police for another reason
and a subsequent investigation reveals the possession."

Maurice Lussier has been busted for carrying pot. The 38-year-old
British Columbia man says he's been smoking the drug for most of life,
especially since he was diagnosed with hepatitis and HIV over the last
decade.

He says he has a doctor's note explaining that marijuana helps
alleviate his symptoms.

"There's hours - even days - when I can't eat. My stomach just turns
and I feel ill. When I eat, sometimes I puke," Lussier said.

"When I'm using the marijuana, I can eat until my stomach's ready to
explode."

He was arrested in downtown Victoria twice in the last few months -
once for allegedly carrying 14 grams, and the last time for allegedly
carrying one gram and for breaking parole conditions by being in the
same neighbourhood.

Lussier has a trial date set for September, when he faces charges
stemming from the first bust last winter.

The possession charge carries a maximum six-month jail sentence and a
$1,000 fine, but is almost never applied that severely.

About 600,000 Canadians carry a criminal record for marijuana
possession and there are indications that the number of charges has
risen in several cities since the last federal election. This numbers
had tailed off since 2003 as politicians nearly decriminalized marijuana.

After one too many busts, St-Maurice made it his mission in life to
fight marijuana laws.

The final straw for him came when he found himself crying in despair
the day after a bust about 10 years ago.

The rock bassist had already been forced to cancel two recording
sessions in the U.S. with his band because he had been refused entry
at the border.

"I was devastated," he said.

"To be put on the other side of that fence - you feel, 'I'm a
criminal, I'm an outlaw.' "

So he shaved his scraggy beard, cut his hair, begun wearing a suit,
and created provincial and federal political parties dedicated to
decriminalization.

St-Maurice led the Marijuana party in the 2000 and 2004 federal
elections, garnering just 33,000 votes the last time while failing
again to win a seat.

He has since bought a Liberal party membership card and decided to
lobby for reform from within a more powerful political
institution.

He still recalls feeling angry when he asked his probation officer
once whether he'd ever smoked marijuana, and his legally appointed
supervisor replied with a mischievous chuckle.

"I just felt, 'What hypocrites. This is so ridiculous,' " he
said.

"The law's trying to convince me that I have a problem, with my values
and behaviour. ... (But) the law is wrong. It's not these millions of
Canadians who have a problem.

"It's the legislation that does."

Quick quotes about the rise in pot arrests in several Canadian
cities:

"Our government has no intention to decriminalize marijuana. ... It's
much stronger than it was years ago and, in some cases, marijuana may
be laced with more dangerous chemicals. There is also evidence it may
lead to experimentation with other drugs. It's not something we want
to encourage." - Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

"The prohibitionist model has been a colossal failure. . Going into
the 20th century we should know better than to bludgeon the use of
this drug with criminal law. It doesn't work, hasn't worked, never has
worked, there's no prospect that it ever will work. Yet we continue to
do it." - Eugene Oscapella, a drug-policy researcher and criminology
professor at the University of Ottawa.

"There was confusion out there with younger people thinking, 'It is
decriminalized.' They figured that it was okay, that it was legal to
have this. They didn't understand that it was illegal. ... You go to
any high school and do a quiz. Find out how many kids realize that it
takes three readings, plus Senate approval, before something happens."
- - Toronto police Det. Doug McCutcheon.

"I had to go to court for 0.1 grams of cannabis. That was probably not
even enough to get high." - Marc-Boris St-Maurice, former leader and
founder of the federal Marijuana party.

"There's been a very aggressive message from Stephen Harper that they
are relying exclusively on enforcement to deal with the drug question.
I think it's a failed strategy. ... They have a very regressive policy
that's in line with what the U.S. is doing in its so-called war on
drugs - which is a total failure." - NDP drug critic Libby Davies.

"The police have a limited amount of resources. We're spending this on
arresting non-violent, recreational cannabis users. That means the
police can't focus on predatory crimes, on break-ins, on opportunistic
crimes. ... This is remarkable for Vancouver - literally at a time
when we're no longer arresting injection drug users." - Philippe
Lucas, an addiction researcher at the University of Victoria.

"I don't think there's a lackadaisical attitude among enforcement
officers to possession. But ... probably seven out of 10 have been
arrested on another charge, or were brought to the attention of police
for another reason and a subsequent investigation reveals the
possession." - Terry McLaren, head of the Ontario Association of
Chiefs of Police.