AMERICANS FLOCK TO CANADA IN SEARCH OF MEDICINAL POT

Bush Crackdown on U.S. Clubs Has Sparked Exodus, Marijuana Backers Say

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Four decades ago, a wave of American
draft dodgers fled to Canada rather than fight in Vietnam. Some turned
to planting marijuana seeds to make a living and spurred an
underground industry that is now booming across British Columbia.

Over the past year or so, a new generation of Americans has flocked
into western Canada, fleeing the Bush administration's crackdown on
the clubs that say they provide marijuana to sick people, particularly
in California.

A handful who face drug charges and convictions in the United States
have applied for political asylum. Hundreds more American marijuana
smokers live underground existences here, local marijuana advocates
say.

Canada is in the awkward position in which it either must stand up to
the United States -- and encourage more refugees and asylum
applications -- or evict people who say they have cancer and other
deadly diseases.

While general use of marijuana is illegal in both countries, Canada
has been far more tolerant of its use for medicinal purposes.

"It's an exodus," said Renee Boje, 32, a California fugitive from
drug charges who has applied for refugee status. "Canada has a
history of protecting the American people from its own government like
during the Vietnam War, and the Underground Railroad that protected
American runaway slaves."

Most of the Americans here do not face charges at home, marijuana
advocates say, but came because they can get the drug more cheaply and
easily in Canada since the American clubs were shut down. "Compassion
clubs" thrive in several Canadian communities to serve what they say
are the medical needs of severe pain sufferers.

"In the last year, the number of Americans coming and intending to
stay has skyrocketed," said Marc Emery, president of the B.C.
Marijuana Party, who provides legal aid to the Americans. He estimated
that the number of recent arrivals was "in the hundreds."

Some of them work on farms, living a countercultural life not very
different from that of the previous generation of American refugees.
Others are living on the street, or moving from couch to couch in
homes of Canadian marijuana users. Some have gone into businesses like
herbal-medicine stores or work in marijuana cultivation.

To Bush administration officials, the American fugitives are simply
lawbreakers.

"It's regrettable that people who are charged with criminal offenses
in the United States don't face justice here and put a burden on
another country," said John Walters, President Bush's drug-policy
chief.

He said there was no evidence that smoking marijuana was an effective
medicine, and that the agenda of many who argue for medicinal
marijuana is to legalize drugs.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Drug Enforcement Administration
director, Asa Hutchinson, have stiffened enforcement against marijuana
clubs that had grown around California after Proposition 215 passed in
1996, making marijuana legal for treating some sick people. Asserting
the superiority of federal anti-drug laws, federal agencies have
raided some clubs, and others have closed or gone underground.