Canadian Government Arguments
In Court Case Get Weird:
"Hemp Is Marijuana" Or Something Like That…
Another Item For The "We Couldn’t Make This Up" Files
(Marijuananews note: Please don’t expect me
to explain this. Please don’t expect the Canadian government to explain it either.
While I don’t think that there are any good arguments for the Canadian
government’s position, there are several that are less bizarre than this. Perhaps
they couldn’t find anyone competent to argue their case.
See
Poll On
Canadian Marijuana Policies Accompanies Report On Hearings For Landmark Cases --
See the results and voteNotice that this was published
in one of the papers in Canada’s largest city.)
See
Toronto Star Praises
Documentary About Activist Chris Clay:
"No politician has the gumption to lobby for ganja."
and
Quadriplegic Toronto
Star Reporter Writes:
"I smoke marijuana because it improves my medical condition considerably.
And I refuse to feel fear or shame because of that."
and
Very Short Article
From The Toronto Star Shows
Why Cultivation And Sale of Marijuana Must Be Legalized;
But That Definitely Was Not The Intended Message!
and
Toronto
Star Praises Hemp Seed Snacks, But Warns About "Contamination" From The
"Hallucinogen"
and
Marc
Emery Gets A Favorable Story In The Toronto Star; A Picture of the End Of Marijuana
Prohibition
October 8, 1999
From The Toronto Star
lettertoed@thestar.com
http://www.thestar.com/
By Tracey Tyler, Toronto Star Legal Affairs Reporter
YOU CAN SMOKE A SHIRT, COURT TOLD
Makes Sense To Treat Hemp Like Marijuana, Federal Lawyer Says
It's only right that Canada's drug possession laws make no
distinction between a marijuana joint and hemp clothing because both could theoretically
be smoked, a federal lawyer suggests.
(Marijuananews note: Okay, but hemp is legal in Canada. Does this mean that the
Canadian government is really in favor of legalizing marijuana? This is really weird!)
"What if you decide to tear up the hemp shirt and put it in little portions that
could be consumed?" justice department lawyer Morris Pistyner said yesterday.
Pistyner was responding to a question from Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Louise
Charron about whether criminal prohibitions on cannabis are too broad. The court is the
highest in Canada to consider whether the drug should be decriminalized for medical and
recreational use.
A three-judge panel was told on Wednesday that drug laws don't distinguish between the
intoxicating and non-intoxicating forms of cannabis. Some experts put the dividing line at
0.3 per cent of the active ingredient THC.
Christopher Clay, 28, who is appealing 1997 convictions for drug possession and drug
trafficking, contends the federal government never proved plant seedlings confiscated from
his London, Ont., hemp store were the intoxicating kind.
Clay and Torontonian Terry Parker, 44, an epileptic who says smoking the drug helps
control seizures, are at the centre of two appeals looking at whether marijuana laws
should be reformed. The federal government is appealing a Scarborough judge's 1997
decision to stay marijuana possession and cultivation charges against Parker. The Epilepsy Association of Toronto is intervening on Parker's behalf.
See
The Lancet reports on the Terry
Parker case."Canadian Judge Allows Marijuana as Therapy"
Justice department lawyer Kevin Wilson argued yesterday that Parker's constitutional
rights aren't infringed by the ban because he can receive the same benefits by taking a
pill containing synthetic THC. In fact, Wilson said, Parker suffered only one seizure when
he was given synthetic THC as part of a nine-week study in 1979.
But Alan Young, Clay's lawyer, said yesterday the blanket ban on marijuana is
unconstitutional because it has no rationale and it is arbitrary, since there is no real
proof the substance causes widespread harm.
Pistyner said while it would be wrong to send a young, first-time
offender to jail for having an ounce of marijuana, it might be necessary to lock up a
repeat offender who deals pounds of the drug in a playground.
(Marijuananews note: I’ll go along with that, but what does
this have to do with marijuana prohibition for adults who don’t want to sell to
children?)
"What's wrong with a jail sentence for someone like that?" he asked.
See
Canada May Erase
Criminal Records of Persons Convicted Of Marijuana Possession
and Other "Minor Criminal Charges."
Pistyner also said that while attitudes toward marijuana might have been
"extreme'' around the time the ban was invoked in 1923, it can be justified because
of the drug's potential to cause harm such as lung damage.
Health Minister Allan Rock announced this week that 14 exemptions
from prosecution for marijuana use would be granted to seriously ill people, which
generated newspaper stories, but no further information in the government's court brief,
prompting the judges to press for details.
See
There Are Many
Thousands Of Medical Marijuana Users In Canada,
But Health Minister Rock Can Only Find 14 Worthy Of His Mercy. 3 Articles
"Let's assume, for the sake of discussion, 14 were granted yesterday," asked
Justice Marvin Catzman. "Are we not to know that?"
The hearing continues at Osgoode Hall.
Copyright: 1999, The Toronto Star
Supported