GRASS ROOTS

Born in hysteria, Canada's pot laws have survived decades of attempts to
reform, toughen or quash them. The following is a chronology of the nation's
cannabis law:

- - 1908: The Opium and Narcotic Act prohibits the import, manufacture and
sale of opiates for non-medicinal purposes. This act serves as the basis for
subsequent Canadian laws dealing with the use of illicit drugs.

- - Parliament first bans the use of cannabis in 1923, after Judge Emily
Murphy announced that people under its influence "become raving maniacs and
are liable to kill ... "

- - As smoking pot became more mainstream with the hippies of the 1960s, the
perceived threat diminishes. Politicians appear poised to relax -- or even
abolish -- existing laws.

- - In the early 1970s, the exhaustive work of the Le Dain Commission, which
was directed by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, recommends a new public
policy that addressed problems in how courts deal with possession charges.
But it wasn't to be. Proposed legislative changes died on the order paper.

- - 1992: Marijuana activist Umberto Iorfida is charged with glamorizing and
promoting the use of illicit drugs. The case is thrown out of court two
years later by a judge who rules it an infringement of free speech.

- - 1992: Conservatives introduce bill to double penalties for marijuana
possession, but it dies when they are defeated in 1993 election.

- - 1997: Marijuana is covered under Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

- - Eugene Oscapella, a lawyer with the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy,
says Canada's pot laws were ill-conceived on junk social science. "This (pot
law) was a solution without a problem, based not on science, but on hysteria
and racism," he said. "There has never been a rational justification of why
we prohibited cannabis."

- - While weed made the criminal books early, Oscapella notes the first
conviction didn't come until 14 years later -- proof, in his view, that
prohibition wasn't addressing any real problem. It wasn't until 1966 that
there were more than 100 convictions for possession a year.

- - 2000: Ontario Court of Appeal strikes down a federal law prohibiting the
possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana. It said the legislation
violated the rights of sick people who use pot for medical reasons; the case
centred on Toronto epileptic Terry Parker.

- - 2001: Canada becomes the first country to legalize the use of marijuana
for medical reasons.

- - 2002: The Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs reviews Canada's
policies and concludes pot should be treated more like tobacco or booze.

- - 2003: An Ontario judge rules that Canada's law on possession of small
amounts of marijuana is no longer valid. Windsor Justice Douglas Phillips
made the decision as he dismissed two drug charges against a 16-year-old
local boy and said Parliament has failed to address problems with Canada's
marijuana laws.