POT SMOKERS FROM U.S. SEEK ASYLUM IN CANADA

VANCOUVER, B.C. - 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 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 few who face drug charges and convictions in the United States have
applied for political asylum. Hundreds more live underground existences in
British Columbia, local 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 suffer from 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 medical 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 American marijuana smokers in Canada do not face charges at home,
advocates say, but came because they can get the drug more cheaply and
easily. "Compassion clubs" thrive in several Canadian communities to serve
what they say are the medical needs of those in severe pain.

"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 Americans. He estimated that the number of recent
arrivals was "in the hundreds."

Some work on farms, living a countercultural life not unlike that of the
previous generation of American refugees. Others live on the street or move
from couch to couch in homes of Canadian marijuana users. Some have gone
into businesses such as herbal medicine stores or work in marijuana
cultivation.

To Bush administration officials, the fugitives are 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.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Drug Enforcement Administration Director
Asa Hutchinson have stiffened enforcement against marijuana clubs that had
grown around California after an initiative called Proposition 215 passed
in 1996, making marijuana legal for treating some sick people. Four other
states, including Washington, permit marijuana for medicinal use.

Steven Tuck, 35, a disabled Army veteran, fled to Canada after his club was
raided repeatedly and he faced drug charges. He was arrested for
overstaying his visa and, fearing deportation, applied for refugee status.

Sitting recently in Vancouver's Amsterdam Cafe, where pot smoking is
allowed, he was sweating and shaking while awaiting a friend who had gone
out to buy some. "I have to have marijuana to stay alive," said Tuck, who
said his torment began in 1987 when an Army parachuting accident caused
spinal and brain injuries.

If sent home and denied marijuana, Tuck said, he fears he will die "choking
on my vomit in jail."

The refugee cases come at a time when the Cabinet and Parliament are
discussing whether to decriminalize marijuana. (A Canadian Senate committee
Wednesday recommended that the country legalize marijuana use for people
older than 16.)

The Cabinet is debating whether the government should provide marijuana to
chronically ill Canadians or conduct clinical trials first.

"We can't base our policy on social issues like this on American standards,
especially in an area where they're very conservative," said Industry
Minister Allan Rock, a former health minister who believes that chronically
ill patients should have access to quality- controlled marijuana.

The most prominent American fugitive in Canada is Steve Kubby, 55, the
Libertarian Party candidate for governor of California in 1998. He and his
wife, Michele, have an Internet news program on marijuana issues.

They fled California last year for the rural British Columbia town of
Sechelt after police found 265 marijuana plants, a mushroom stem and some
peyote buttons in their house. Kubby had been sentenced to four months of
house arrest and three months of probation, which he feared might lead to a
prison term that would deny him the marijuana that he says he needs to
treat his adrenal cancer.

"If I don't smoke pot," he said, "my blood pressure goes through the roof
and would either burst a blood vessel or cause a heart attack."

He appealed, then brought his family to Canada. He was arrested and could
be deported.

Meanwhile, he applied for - and received - permission to cultivate and
possess marijuana for his medical use after providing a letter from a
University of British Columbia doctor who substantiated his need "to
continue to use cannabis." Advocates viewed it as a major victory.

"It's threatening to the whole ideology of prohibition," Kubby said, "which
says any marijuana use is criminal."