SUPREME COURT TO HEAR THREE POT APPEALS

One Involves Christopher Clay, Who Ran Hemp Nation In London.

OTTAWA -- The government promises to rewrite the law on marijuana use but
the Supreme Court of Canada faces a more pressing question -- what to do
with the law as it is, not as it may be.

In a trio of cases to be heard today, the high court is being asked to throw
out criminal penalties for simple possession of small amounts of pot on the
grounds that they violate the Charter of Rights.

Government lawyers will be arguing the present law should be upheld, even as
Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon prepare to
change it.

That's not as bizarre as it may seem at first glance.

The key issue, stripped of legal niceties, is whether the politicians or the
courts have the final say in deciding what substances ought to be outlawed.

The Justice Department contends the government should have as much leeway as
possible in drafting drug policy, without being hemmed in by constitutional
fences.

"Simply put, there is no free-standing right to get stoned," says the
written brief filed by federal lawyer David Frankel. "Whether the courts or
the public at large consider Parliament's choices to be good or bad,
effective or ineffective, wise or unwise, popular or unpopular, are not
yardsticks for measuring constitutionality."

On the other side stand an array of defence lawyers who maintain the nine
judges of the Supreme Court must set limits on what the country's
legislators can do.

"You can't simply say Parliament has the right to be wrong," says Paul
Burstein, a lawyer for one of the three people whose pot convictions are
under review.

The cases at issue involve two self-described marijuana activists and one
man who was simply unlucky enough to get busted smoking a joint:

- - David Malmo-Levine ran the Harm Reduction Club, a non-profit co-operative
that offered advice on how to use marijuana moderately and safely and
supplied pot at cost to 1,800 members. He got a one-year suspended sentence.

- - Christopher Clay ran Hemp Nation in London, a store he started with a
government loan. Clay, who has since moved to B.C., used the London business
to sell marijuana seeds and seedlings in a deliberate challenge to federal
law. He was fined $750 and given three years probation.

- - Victor Caine was arrested after he lit up a joint in his van. He was
convicted and given an absolute discharge.