SENATORS WOULD LEGALIZE POT

Government Will Take Its Time In Deciding On Committee's Controversial
Recommendation

A Senate committee says anyone over the age of 16 should be allowed to use
marijuana without fear of criminal prosecution.

The committee's recommendation to legalize pot smoking immediately ignited
a controversy when it was released yesterday.

Marijuana advocates are lighting up to celebrate the senators urging the
government to lighten up on illegal drug use.

"I'm surprised and delighted they listened to us," says Hamilton artist
Wayne Phillips. "They are usually thought of as a bunch of stodgy, elite
politicians."

That observation might explain Justice Minister Martin Cauchon's reserved
reaction. While admitting the government must evolve with society, he would
not endorse the senators' report. He will wait for suggestions, expected
this fall, from a Commons committee looking into drug uses.

The country's police chiefs, also were guarded in their response to the
senators' report.

Hamilton Police Chief Ken Robertson wants time to read the Senate committee
report before he comments on its recommendations, which go further than
even drug-tolerant countries such as the Netherlands.

Robertson and other police chiefs favour the decriminalization of
possession of small amounts of marijuana. But the Senate committee's
release yesterday goes beyond decriminalization and surprised police
authorities by calling for the actual legalization of cannabis.

The committee recommended the drug be regulated, controlled and taxed for
use by adults, not unlike beer and wine. Tobacco companies should not be
eligible to be suppliers, it said.

David Griffin of the Canadian Police Association says the committee's
findings are "nothing more than a back-to-school gift for drug pushers."

Griffin says the committee has spent millions of dollars travelling the
globe in search of witnesses willing to support its theory that smoking pot
is safer than drinking alcohol.

The Senate committee reports that needed funds and resources are wasted in
policing and prosecuting drug possession and that prohibition has drawn
organized criminal elements.

It rejected the "gateway" view that cannabis use leads to the use of harder
drugs.

Committee chairman Senator Pierre Claude Nolin says scientific evidence
indicates marijuana is less harmful than alcohol.

He says using pot should be "a personal choice" that does not result in
criminal convictions.

The Senate committee also calls for an amnesty for anyone convicted in the
past of possession of marijuana.

Hamilton's most vocal and flamboyant exponents of marijuana use, Michael
Baldasaro and Walter Tucker, want more than an amnesty.

"There should be compensation for all the lives they have destroyed with
the prosecution of cannabis use," Tucker says.

The two men are ministers with the Church of the Universe which administers
marijuana as a sacrament and the drug is described by Baldasaro as harmless
"as the potato."

Hamilton artist Phillips, who uses the actual leaves of cannabis plants in
his artwork, says the recommendations exceeded his expectations of the
senators.

But he's a downer on whether their recommendations will ever be implemented
by politicians.

"This is going to fall on the deafest of ears," he says. "It will collect
dust on the shelves just like the Le Dain report (which recommended
decriminalization 30 years ago)."

He feels that Canadian politicians will be intimidated by the United States
which uses its hardline war on drugs approach as part of an agenda to
dominate other countries.

"The recommendations come as manna from heaven but ultimately they don't
mean anything," he says.

He's impressed, however, that the senators took an honest look at the issue
and responded to the wishes of Canadians for a more understanding approach
to drug use.

Phillips says he suffers from medical conditions that are alleviated with
cannabis use. But he doesn't qualify for a medical exemption from the drug
laws because of the stringent conditions imposed by Health Canada.

Burlington medical marijuana user Alison Myrden -- a former corrections
officer who suffers from multiple sclerosis -- does have an exemption for
daily legal use of cannabis to relieve constant facial pain from the disease.

She welcomes the Senate recommendation for speedier and more compassionate
approvals for medicinal use and for a controlled supply.

Currently, there is no legal controlled source for cannabis. Family members
have to get marijuana for her from pushers at exorbitant prices.

Myrden worries the ongoing battle being fought by users who take marijuana
for medicinal reasons will be sidetracked now as the country debates
legalization for all.

"This is long overdue but all those people who are sick and suffering and
dying can't afford to be lost in the shuffle. They have fought too hard."

Medical marijuana users need a supply of the drug now and not a national
debate, she says.

She is involved in a court challenge against the laws because there is no
available legal supply.

A regulated approach with licenced suppliers, as advocated by the Senate
committee, would eliminate the fear and risk of arrest for medical users,
she says. "Whether it is legalized for everyone in the country is up to the
politicians but we can't forget the sick people who need it now."

All eyes will be on Canada to see whether it provides new direction in its
approach to drug use.

"The world is watching and waiting to see if Canada breaks new ground," she
says.

Other highlights of the report recommending legalizing marijuana and hashish:

* Marijuana and hashish should come under a regulatory system for
production and sale under licence for legal use by any Canadian resident
over 16.

* Looser rules for the use of medical marijuana access.

* The law should be changed for those who drive after using both alcohol
and marijuana, with blood-alcohol limits lowered to .04 per cent in such cases.

* The government should erase the criminal records of 300,000 to 600,000
Canadians convicted of simple possession of marijuana.

* The government should appoint a national adviser on psychoactive substances.

* The government should call a conference of the provinces, municipalities
and other interested parties to set the ground rules for legal marijuana.

* The government should finance research on drugs and on prevention and
treatment programs, financed by taxes on the sale of legal marijuana.

- -- With files from Canadian Press.