You Call This Reform?

CANADA BACKTRACKS AND BABYSTEPS ON MARIJUANA

Despite US Drug Czar John Walters' recent assertions that Canada is
"the one place in the hemisphere where things are going the wrong
(way) rapidly," Canada is moving towards stricter marijuana policies.

After a summer of defacto legalized marijuana use lead to no apparent
increase in anarchy, violence or crime on Canadian streets, the
Ontario Appeals Court effectively recriminalized recreational use on
October 7, 2003, while ordering that the Canadian government insure
patients can more easily obtain their medicinal marijuana by allowing
businesses and individuals to grow their own for medical use. At the
same time, Canada's proposed "decrim" bill seeks to further tighten
rather than relax Canada's pot laws.

"This case is not about the social and recreational use of marijuana,
but is about those with the medical need to use marijuana to treat
symptoms of serious medical conditions," ruled the Ontario Appeals
Court in Hitzig et al. v. Her Majesty the Queen, pointing out that
there is "a strong body of opinion supporting the claim that marijuana
offers some individuals inestimable relief from a variety of
debilitating symptoms associated with serious long-term illness such
as AIDS, cancer and epilepsy." Doing away with portions of Ottawa's
Marijuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), the Court noted that the
stricken portions had been forcing sick people to go to the black
market for their legal supply of medicinal marijuana. "Exposing these
individuals to these risks does not advance the objective of public
health and safety," the Court ruled in its unanimous 3-0 ruling.
"Rather, it is contrary to it. Equally, driving business to the black
market is contrary to better narcotic drug control."

But as the Court is telling the government that it needs to insure a
safe supply of medical marijuana for those patients who qualify, there
are troubling reports from those few patients who have already been
supplied marijuana from the government of adverse reactions, making
some literally ill. Complaints range from heaches, having to smoke 4
to 6 times as much as normal to get the desired effect, that the
marijuana has a "sticks and stems appearance" and when the almost
unrollable powder is finally twisted into a spliff it tastes foul.
Three out of 10 to so far receive Health Canada-supplied pot want
their money back. To top it off, the marijuana the Canadian government
has been growing in the Flin-Flon mine intended to supply those
patients turns out to have been grown in a highly polluted area, with
toxic heavy metals turning up in the grown plants.

As Canadians for Safe Access puts it, their own independent tests of
Health Canada marijuana being grown in the Flin-Flon mine showed
results "indicating elevated levels of heavy metals such as arsenic
and lead."

"The Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in Hitzig, while it looks good on
paper for medical marijuana patients, allows Health Canada - a
government agency openly hostile to people using marijuana as medicine
- - enough bureaucratic leeway to weasel out of helping critically and
chronically ill Canadians get access to their medicine," says Tim
Meehan, Communications Director of the marijuana reform organization
Ontario Consumers for Safe Access to Recreational Cannabis (OCSARC),
and Acting Leader of the Ontario Marijuana Party.

"While the decision affirms that some medical patients benefit from
cannabis, the government to date has been incompetent in providing
access to the medicine," says Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of
the NORML Foundation. "While the court allowed patients more access,
in a quid pro quo, the court seeks to limit the range of marijuana
laws for non-medical, adult use."

Not only has the Appeals Court ruled against recreational users, but
the so-called decriminalization bill introduced for consideration by
Parliament in May 2003, C-38, is looking more like a criminalization
bill every day. If it passes, it will introduce mandatory minimum
sentences for growers in Canada. It will insure jail time for repeat
offenders for low-level possession charges.

And now, after meetings between Canadian and US drug warriors,
meetings that caused no small amount of friction, and comments from US
Drug Czar John Walters about how "Canadians are ashamed" of their
Prime Minister and his government's attitude towards marijuana, the
bill's proposal to allow possession of 15 grams or less to result in a
fine instead of a criminal charge has been lowered to 10 grams or less.

Walters was offended that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien
jokingly told reporters from the Winnipeg Free Press on October 3 that
although he hasn't ever tried marijuana, he might "try it when it will
no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in
the other hand."

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Walters recently threatened in an
interview with the Boston Globe that if Canada moves towards more
liberalized marijuana policies, the repercussions will be felt in
tightened, possibly even a "semi-militarized" border, in similar
fashion to the current border control with Mexico, and Asa Hutchinson,
former head of DEA and now senior official with the Office of Homeland
Security, said that Canada would have to "face consequences" were they
to continue towards marijuana reform.

ONDCP official David Murray also told Vancouver reporters recently
that the US would "have to respond" if Canada ok's
decriminalization.

"John Walters' comments about Canada being 'ashamed' of Jean Chretien
are seen in Canada, like most foreign policy opinions coming from the
Bush Administration lately, as a product of arrogant self-delusion
rather than fact," Meehan says. "Apparently Walters suffers from a
condition psychiatrists term 'projection'- where a person projects
what they want others to think and feel," quipped St. Pierre. "Walters
is so deep into this condition that he actually projects on to an
entire nation of people."

Keith Stroup, Executive Director of NORML, does point out that while
the proposed amount of marijuana personally allowed in C-38 was
originally 15 grams or less, and now reduced to only 10 gram or less
resulting in only a fine and no criminal record, even while proposing
mandatory minimum sentences for growers and other increased penalties
for repeated personal possession offenders, this is still a step in
the right direction, albeit small steps, even if it's not as far as
reformers would like things to go.