POT ACTIVIST MAKES CASE IN COURT

Urges Against Jail For Exercising 'Right to Relaxation and Well-Being'

OTTAWA (CP) - David Malmo-Levine, fortified by a quick toke of hash and
dressed from head to toe in clothing woven of hemp, took his crusade
against federal marijuana laws to the Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday.

The 31-year-old Vancouver man, one of three men appealing convictions for
breaking pot laws, couched his argument simply as he addressed the nine
poker-faced judges who patiently heard him out. Nobody should be
incarcerated, he said, for exercising a "right to relaxation and
well-being" that doesn't harm anybody else.

"We should not let anyone in this country point their finger, yell
'criminal,' and then lock up thousands of people . . . . This court must
protect human autonomy, which is in essence the right to pick and choose
our own tastes, our own pleasures."

Malmo-Levine, a self-described justice and freedom activist, made his pitch
amid an array of lawyers who offered more learned arguments for striking
down the current prohibition on pot use as an infringement of the Charter
of Rights.

He later acknowledged, during a break in the hearing, that he'd taken some
unusual steps to prepare for his day in court.

"I took a couple of hits off some bubble hash," he said, explaining that
the specially filtered marijuana resin helped him wake up and focus his mind.

"I was happy, hungry and relaxed, but I was not impaired."

Malmo-Levine wants the court to strike down all criminal sanctions against
marijuana, including penalties for growers and traffickers.

Lawyers for the others involved in the case framed the question more
narrowly. They concentrated on whether people convicted of simple
possession should face jail time and be saddled with a criminal record.

"I don't mean to stand here and suggest there is a constitutional right to
smoke marijuana," said Toronto lawyer Paul Burstein.

But he did argue the government has been overstepping its legal authority
for the last 80 years by keeping a law on the books that provides for jail
terms in simple possession cases - even if such sentences are rarely
imposed by judges nowadays.

John Conroy, representing a Vancouver-area man busted for smoking a single
joint in his van at a seaside parking lot, offered a similar assessment of
the law.

"If somebody lights up a marijuana cigarette in their own home, or even out
at the beach, where does the government get an interest in that?" asked Conroy.

"Normally we don't tell people what they can put in their bodies, under
threat of depriving them of their liberty."

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon Prime Minister Jean Chretien have both said
the Liberal government will introduce legislation soon to decriminalize
possession of small amounts of pot for personal use.

That wouldn't mean outright legalization, but possession would be treated
as a minor offence subject to ticketing and fines, something like a traffic
violation.

Critics say there is no guarantee the long-promised bill will actually get
through Parliament before the next federal election is called likely next year.

They want the Supreme Court to set constitutional ground rules that would
force the hand of federal politicians and ensure that no future government
could backtrack on the issue.