O CANNABIS

Is Canada Ready For Relaxed Marijuana Laws?

TORONTO -- It's Sunday morning and the joint is packed. A quick scan of the
room finds a group of four teens so committed to getting high they smoke
eight power-packed joints in just more than five minutes, double-fisting
spliffs in between bites of chicken sandwiches.

This is the most comfortable spot in Vancouver for these 19-year-olds to
get high without hassles.

Behind them, four battle-scarred loggers dump seven grams, or "a quarter",
of crystal-covered B.C. bud on a foosball table. Each man takes his turn
dipping meaty, calloused hands into the pile of weed to start rolling
several morning cannons. They're talking about the weather with a city
stockbroker whose wife won't let him toke at home in front of his two children.

At this popular cafe in downtown Vancouver, there is no reason to hide your
stash. The cops just shrug anyway, resigned to let pot smokers have their
way. That's a good thing because there's too much smoke being produced by
the 50-odd customers to keep things undercover.

Within arm's reach, on some plush leather couches under a Jerry Garcia
image, a pack of college students from Seattle whittle away the brunch
hour, smoking pot and marvelling at what has become accepted practice in
Canada.

"We love the atmosphere here, it's just like Amsterdam, but in a way it
kind of makes me sad," said Jamie Lalli, 21, who chose Canada as a vacation
spot after reading about its acceptance of marijuana.

"Canada has all this freedom. It seems so progressive. And here we are
coming from the United States which was supposedly built on freedom and
progression but instead, in comparison now, it's like we're from a very
conservative, backward country."

It's a sign of Canada's high times.

What would have landed these people in handcuffs 10 years ago is now
common. It's a reflection of how this country's view of marijuana has
dramatically changed in 20 years, thanks to a wave of pot popularity
started on the West Coast more than a decade ago.

In recent interviews with SunMedia, various drug cops and police chiefs in
the Toronto area have described the marijuana problem in Ontario as "an
epidemic", "out-of-control", "a crisis", "a disaster" and "currently
uncontainable."

The numbers they have are startling. Three years ago 200 grow operations
were searched in Ontario; last year there were 1,400. Three years ago in
Durham there were 27 grow operations busted; last year 150. In the York
region there were 40 grow operation-based search warrants executed. Last
year: 170.

"It was like the growers were here overnight," said York Region morality
and vice Det. Mike Klimm, who said there are now about 1,500 grow
operations in the region.

"All of a sudden they were everywhere."

The police say they are undermanned, working without enough resources to
track and catch an ever-increasingly intelligent and organized collection
of growers, smugglers and dealers. They claim it is mostly organized crime
syndicates who have stretched their tentacles from B.C. into Ontario.

Police said the criminals are smuggling billions of dollars' worth of
Canadian pot into the U.S. each year. Those they do arrest are consistently
receiving conditional sentences. Jail time right now is rare.

The most comprehensive study on arrests and convictions was completed last
year in British Columbia by researchers at the International Centre for
Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy. Of 8,010 cases involving
people arrested for alleged marijuana cultivation, 25% of those associated
with a case were convicted and only 18% of those convicted were sentenced
to jail time, with an average length of 4.5 months.

"The penalties and the consequences from the courts are absolutely
insignificant. There seems to be no consequences and (the growers) know
that," Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino said in a recent interview.

"The way the courts have been dealing with this is telling criminals they
have little to be concerned about. My viewpoint is that Canadian society
has to make a choice now. If this is what society wants, then the public
and the policy-makers should say this is fine. They would have to change
the law because the way it is written now it's a very serious offence."

Fantino understands what polls have been tracking for more than a decade.
The public seems to be craving change and an overwhelming majority are
losing appetite for prohibition at a steady rate.

The Canadian Medical Association estimates that up to two million Canadians
smoke marijuana recreationally.

In the drug war for the hearts and minds of Canadians, the proverbial worm
seems to have turned solidly toward legalizing the leaf and the government
is preparing to respond.

Last fall, a Canadian Senate committee shook the foundations of the debate
when it recommended legalizing marijuana immediately after a comprehensive
study that dispelled many long-standing marijuana myths. Among its conclusions:

- - Marijuana is "not a gateway" to harder drug, such as cocaine and heroine.

- - Fewer than 10% of users become addicted.

- - Policing and prosecuting dope smokers is costing Canadian taxpayers
$300-$500 million a year, with 70% of that used to deal with possession
charges.

The Senate committee found "scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates
that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be
treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue."

Under the report's guidelines, marijuana use would be restricted to adults,
and criminal law would still apply to those producing and selling it.

"It is time to recognize what is patently obvious; our policies have been
ineffective because they are poor policies," the committee concluded.

Now the federal government is poised to take its swing with new legislation
expected in June which would decriminalize marijuana possession as part of
a revamped National Drug Strategy.

Early indications were that Justice Minister Martin Cauchon would
decriminalize the possession of 30 grams of pot, making it subject to
fines. But now it seems more likely to be in the range of 10-20 grams.

The Senate report said an average of 20,000 Canadians a year are charged
with possession and currently 600,000 of us have a criminal record for it.

When Marc-Boris St. Maurice spent 24 hours in jail in 1991 for smoking pot,
it changed his life forever. He vowed to be an activist for the
legalization of marijuana and he hasn't let himself down.

He created the Bloc Pot organization in 1997 and co-founded Canada's
Marijuana Party in 2000, a week before he was arrested as a volunteer for
the Club Compassion of Montreal.

You would think a man dedicated to marijuana freedom would be ecstatic the
government is moving forward with decriminalization plans. You would be wrong.

"It still equates to prohibition," St. Maurice said. "It's an illusion,
smoke and mirrors. It could set the movement back and steal our thunder
because if it does go through, then where does that leave the pro-marijuana
movement? The prohibitionists will be able to say, 'We already have
decriminalization, what more do you want?' "

The Canadian marijuana movement has never been stronger. They have
established a powerful network bankrolled with millions of dollars, tied
together via the Internet.

"The movement across this country is vibrant," St. Maurice said. "I
remember when there was nothing happening in Ontario just a few years ago
and now its Million Marijuana March is the biggest in Canada.

"Don't mess with the potheads. I think we have benefitted from being
underestimated for so long."

Doctors who are fighting to keep marijuana banned say the information
emanating from lobby groups like Canada's Marijuana Party is dangerous.

"People don't perceive marijuana as harmful anymore and I think that's
happened largely because of a powerful propaganda machine which has led to
a general ignorance," said Dr. Raju Hajela, a past president of the
Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine.

Hajela is at the forefront of the medical movement against marijuana, even
for medicinal purposes. He was one of the first to claim publicly that one
joint is as dangerous as 10 cigarettes.

"There is a real discrepancy between what scientific evidence has proven
and what the public perception is," Hajela said.

"There is an allure that it is natural. People try it and they think there
is nothing wrong with it. Even for people trying it for the first time,
there are devastating consequences."

Hajela said the public, and even the media, have been seduced by the
pro-marijuana marketing campaign.

"The media is not interested in the facts anymore," Hajela said. "There are
a lot of marijuana smokers amongst the media. They don't like to look at
something that would make themselves look in the mirror."

He said marijuana is of great concern because of 420-odd chemicals in the
plant resulting in more than 2,000 substances unleashed upon lighting, many
of which are toxic and carcinogenic, and made worse by the fact tokers
generally inhale marijuana smoke deeper than tobacco.

According to scientific evidence Hajela cites, regular marijuana use can
induce mental illness such as anxiety and panic disorders, dysthymia, major
depressive, bipolar and delusional disorders and a paranoid schizophrenia.

But these illnesses aren't even part of the debate, rarely even in the
medical world, Hajela acknowledged.

"Yes, tobacco is bad and yes, alcohol is dangerous but just because these
things are legal doesn't mean marijuana should be legal. But the public
isn't understanding that a lot of the time.

"On the public front, it doesn't look very optimistic that things will
change and people will understand the dangers," Hajela said. "We are in an
age of marketing and the pro-marijuana lobby has a lot of money devoted to
this."

Police Chief Julian Fantino, unabashedly frustrated by the way governments
and courts are treating marijuana, is determined to change public opinion.
Once in favour of decriminalization, he is now having second thoughts.

"I have to tell you I was in favour provided there are very small amounts
involved but having said that, I don't think we can be doing this without
addressing the business end of marijuana - the organized crime - which is
the real problem around the drug," Fantino said.

Police organizations maintain that 75% of the marijuana in Ontario is being
grown by organized crime networks, most notably the Hells Angels and
Vietnamese groups first rooted in B.C. in the late 1980s.

"The violence associated with these grow operations - the murders, the
ripoffs, the electricity thefts - that's what's going on here," Fantino
said. "If the government wants to blink and wink and turn its backs on
organized crime and endanger the lives of ... law-abiding citizens, then
they should just legalize it and get it over with and the police will be
done with it."

For all the concern about Canada-U.S. relations regarding marijuana,
consider this: The U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center estimates Canada
produces 800 metric tons of pot annually while Mexico produces 10,000
metric tons.

U.S. officials said they were not overly concerned with a decriminalization
policy in Canada but vowed to bump up border patrols if it happens.

"Canada is not talking about legalizing large indoor grows or stopping the
arrests of criminal enterprises," said DEA spokesman Will Glaspy.

"Essentially that's where the (border) problems are. People wanting to
smoke dope and get high is not a cross-border issue.

"But it (a decriminalization policy) is going to increase our security
along the border because marijuana is a Schedule 1 illicit drug. If Canada
changed its laws, it's not going to change things here in the U.S. and
you'd have a lot of people wanting to get high who would be going to a
border have look."

To add a wrinkle to the debate, the Canadian Supreme Court is scheduled
next week to hear a charter challenge case involving three appellants that
challenges the criminalization of marijuana possession.

Revered cannabis lawyer John Conroy will argue that his clients have a
right to smoke pot.

"If the court concludes there is no harm to others even based on this
challenge, then it could possibly strike down existing laws, there could be
a domino affect, even for laws against selling it," Conroy said.

"We are trying to establish what our liberties are. In a free and
democratic society, if you want to smoke pot, why should I care? It just
wouldn't have an impact on others if it was taken off the black market."