January 24, 1998

by Christine Brousseau-Whig Standard Staff Writer-With Files from Southam Newspapers

At least one local storekeeper who was busted for selling drug-related paraphernalia and literature intends to challenge the charges by arguing that his constitutional rights have been violated.

A six-officer drug unit from three police forces-the RCMP, the OPP and Kingston Police-used search warrants to seize rolling paper, hash pipes, scales and marijuana magazines from three stores. The raid took place Jan. 7. The joint-forces squad seized merchandise from Erehwon Trading Co. on Princess Street, including a key chain with a picture of cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn urging people to roll a joint, said owner Bill Stevenson.

Erehwon Trading Co. has been open for about five years and Stevenson has owned similar stores in Kingston since 1981. He said the recent raid was the first since he opened for business. Stevenson, 40, said the lion's share of his store's merchandise is music related-from CDs to rock T-shirts-and the seized items represent about two percent of his inventory. "They also seized all of our hemp related material" he said. Items seized included hemp wallets, handbags and pencil cases.

"[They seized] basically anything that had a piece of hemp on it, anything that they loosely determined paraphernalia." He said the Criminal Code lacks a clear definition of what constitutes drug paraphernalia. "The law needs to be challenged."

Toronto lawyer Alan Young said that Section 462.2 of the code suffers from "vagueness and overbreadth." The section defines an "instrument for illicit drug use" as; "Anything designed primarily or intended under the circumstances for consuming or to facilitate the consumption of an illicit drug."

OPP Det. Glenn Holland said the drug enforcement unit raided the businesses after receiving complaints from parents who found their teenagers with paraphernalia from the stores. [Stores] shouldn't be running around selling this stuff to kids," Det. Holland said. "It forms an impression on them."

A key issue to be debated in court will revolve around the drug-related literature seized by police from at least one of the stores, including copies of 'Cannabis Canada' and 'High Times'. In a 1994 civil case, an Ontario judge ruled that including literature under the Criminal Code section covering drug paraphernalia violated the Constitution's protection of freedom of expression. That decision effectively removed literature' from the offence.

Stevenson said he was reading the details of the decision aloud from one of the magazines before one of the officers seized it from his hands. "I told the police several times but they insisted on taking the books as well" he said. Det. Holland acknowledged the court decision, and said that selling the pro-marijuana magazines on their own would not be an offence. But "along with the other items, then the literature is supportive of the charges."

Young, who argued the case that changed the law, said by seizing the literature, police "have clearly violated my potential clients' constitutional rights." The other two stores charged are Off The Wall and Western Rock. As of yesterday, not all the stores had decided whether to join the constitutional battle.

Another city store owner, Dylan Maxwell, said he is joining Stevenson's fight to have the Criminal Code section declared unconstitutional. Maxwell, co-owner of a hemp clothing store called Kingston Hemporium and another in Montreal, said he is collecting donations from the region's hemp stores to help fund the group's legal defence. Ottawa's Crosstown Traffic has already donated $500, Maxwell said.