RULING ROCKS AREA TOKERS

Toronto pot activists, medicinal smokers and recreational tokers were
shocked, disappointed, and angry that it won't be a green Christmas
this year after all. They were forced to scratch Acapulco gold,
African black, and B.C. bud off their holiday wish lists after the
Supreme Court upheld the federal government's marijuana
prohibition.

"It's absolutely depressing, there's no merry Christmas this year,"
said epileptic Terry Parker, who won the right to smoke pot for
medicinal purposes in 2000, but still has no safe, secure source of
the drug.

"It's clearly evident they didn't look at any of the evidence. We
allow alcohol and tobacco to kill millions every year and here we have
marijuana, which helps people, and we don't let people use it."

Over at the Friendly Stranger, the quintessential Toronto shop for all
things Mary Jane, bong shoppers said the Supreme Court let them down.

"I thought (Canada) had it figured out, we seemed to be so close, yet
once again we are so far (from legalization)," John Aguila said. "The
thing they don't understand is we are going to smoke pot no matter
what the government says."

"We've lost a fair amount of momentum and have almost exhausted the
potential of the litigation strategy," said Toronto lawyer Alan Young,
who represented Christopher Clay in one of the three cases the Supreme
Court reviewed.