ONE ABSURDITY AFTER ANOTHER

The issue is before the Ontario Superior Court and the Ontario Superior
Court will, as it always does, make its decision on the finer points of
law. The judges will examine the evidence in front of them and decide
whether federal regulations governing the use of medicinal marijuana
violate the constitutional rights of the people who want the use it.

Bob Leduc of Guelph is one of those whose health, well-being, enjoyment and
ability to participate in the regular life of his community hangs in the
balance. Should the court decide that the federal regulations do indeed
infringe on the constitutional rights of the people whose stories it is
hearing, he (with them) will at least be on track to be permitted to
legally smoke marijuana to ease the symptoms of his ailments. And those
ailments are disabling. They include psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome
and temporal lobe epilepsy.

Of course, it is illegal for Leduc and thousands of other Canadians in his
same boat to buy marijuana on the open market. It is not permitted and to
do it without permission is risky. With special and unusual dispensation,
he may learn to cultivate small quantities of the crop for his own use. He
may also, with a doctor's prescription, obtain some from the Toronto
Compassion Centre. Or he can simply wait it out. If he endures long enough
he might someday gain access to bits of the federally-cultivated crop that
is now being grown for experimental purposes in a carefully-guarded
abandoned Manitoba mineshaft.

This is absurd and inhuman. Marijuana may remain a controversial substance
and it may be best avoided, but the medical evidence is stacked against the
notion that it is a habit-forming drug that drives its users to crime, to
insanity or to other, more powerful mind-altering chemicals.

Even that staid bastion of caution, conservatism and sober second thought
- -- the Canadian Senate -- sees little threat to the common good in
marijuana. A committee of eight Senators recommended earlier this month
that Canadians over 16 be allowed to smoke it.

Its investigations showed that the weed is actually less harmful than
either alcohol or tobacco. True, always plumping for the safe side, the
committee proposed a regulatory system that would limit the active
ingredient tetrahydrocannabninol (THC) at 13 per cent for recreational pot.
But pot destined for medical use would have no such THC limits.

In a sensible, realistic world, the Senate recommendation -- and the
evidence amassed during the process of arriving at that recommendation --
would be enough to free up the system. It would allow the records of
thousands of people convicted of criminal possession to be cleared. It
would permit those who might benefit from using this relatively-benign
substance to have what they say they need to live fuller, healthier lives.

But this, apparently, is not yet that sensible world. It is a bizarre world
in which many will lose (or think they will lose) if marijuana is ever
legalized. It is a world which clings to the fear of surrendering the
control over marijuana it has never, ever really had.