CITY COPS BACK LAYING POT CHARGES

The summer of pot is over, city police warned on the first day after a
court ruling cleared the haze around the province's marijuana laws.

A support worker for people with HIV and AIDS also hailed Tuesday's Ontario
Court of Appeal Ruling as a step towards getting a safe, legal supply for
his clients.

"It clarifies what the law really is, it can be enforced and we can go
about our business," Brockville Police Chief Barry King said. "That's the
caution we want - if you get stopped, we won't let you off."

Brockville police, like forces across the province, stopped laying charges
for possession of less than 30 grams of pot after an Ontario judge deemed
Canada's pot laws unconstitutional for failing to exempt medical users.

City police laid 19 drug-related charges in June, July and August of 2002.
They laid just two this summer.

Many cases of simple possession were dropped in local courts, too.

King, who is chairman of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, doesn't
like to use the word decriminalization but he supports punishing simple
possession of small quantities of marijuana with a fine or other measure,
not a criminal record.

Officers are relieved, however, that the law has been clarified, he said.

"It's tough for a person in law enforcement when something is the law, then
you can't do anything about it," he said. "You have to swallow hard. The
hardest thing is to say just don't do it. Keep your eyes open, look for
evidence of trafficking but then you have to step back."

Police didn't ignore pot smoking. If they smelled or saw pot they'd ask
questions and look for evidence of trafficking - which police continued to
prosecute - such as small bags of weed, a debt list or scales.

There were a few complaints - smoke blown at baseball games, a handful of
defiant tokers taunting police - but city residents largely behaved themselves.

"People were not offensive," King said. "I was surprised overall there were
so few incidents."

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday that sick people shouldn't have
to make criminal contacts and live with the cost and dangers of dealing in
an illegal drug to get marijuana for medical reasons.

The ruling clears the way for private growers to supply the sick and for
users to grow their own supply.

The court struck down the requirement that would-be medical marijuana get
approval from a second physician and restrictions on licensed growers
getting paid or supplying more than one user.

John MacTavish of HIV/AIDS Regional Services, who works with local people
who use medical marijuana, hailed the decision.

"People living with life-threatening illness need access to medical
marijuana," MacTavish said. "It's about time."

Marijuana can help with a host of symptoms caused by treatments for
HIV/AIDS. Patients are nauseated, vomit, lose their interest in food and
just waste away.

"It helps them - it takes care of symptoms and helps them live with those
illness," MacTavish said.

Some of his clients are federally registered users and others get their
weed from local "compassion clubs."

"A majority, like everyone else, have to buy it illegally," MacTavish said.
"They're no different from anyone else. If we as a society are going to say
medical marijuana is OK, we should make sure people don't have to access it
through illegal means."