POT CRUSADER COURTS CHANGE TO DRUG LAW

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 yesterday.

The 31-year-old Vancouver man, one of three people appealing convictions
for breaking pot laws, couched his argument simply as he addressed the nine
poker-faced judges.

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."

BUBBLE HASH

During a break in the hearing, he said he'd taken some unusual steps to
prepare for court.

"I took a couple of hits off some bubble hash," he said. "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, concentrating on whether people convicted of simple possession
should face jail time and 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, who added that 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.

The court reserved judgment and will take months to deliver its ruling.