cannabisnews.com: Lawyers Argue To Legalize Marijuana










  Lawyers Argue To Legalize Marijuana

Posted by FoM on October 07, 1999 at 08:55:10 PT
By Luiza Chwialkowska 
Source: National Post 

TORONTOIn a constitutional challenge to Parliament's right to legislate marijuana, the Appeal Court of Ontario was asked yesterday to strike down laws that make consumption of the drug criminal. 
Lawyers for Christopher Clay, a store owner convicted in 1997 of selling a small cannabis plant to an undercover officer in London, Ont., are asking the court to strike down Canada's marijuana laws because there exists scant scientific evidence of medical or sociological harm associated with the drug. Parliament does not have the authority to criminalize a recreational activity that has not been proven to be harmful, said lawyers for Mr. Clay, who engaged in what they call the widest review of the scientific literature concerning marijuana consumption since a Royal Commission tabled a four-year report on the subject in 1972. "Empirical data demonstrate that Parliament did not have a reasonable basis to create this offense," Alan Young, professor at Osgoode Hall told the court. Pulmonary irritation associated with ingesting smoke is the only proven harmful effect of the drug, he said. "They've created a law to prevent Canadians from becoming a nation of wheezers and coughers. That can't be the intent of criminal law," he said. Although the decision of Ontario's highest court is only binding in that province, a victory would influence marijuana cases across the country. Justice J.F. McCart, the lower court judge who convicted Mr. Clay, ruled that "consumption of marijuana is relatively harmless compared to the so-called hard drugs and including tobacco and alcohol." While scientists hypothesize that marijuana use could lead to permanent brain damage, psychosis, reduced immunity, and dangerous driving, Prof. Young said "the state, not the citizen," should bear that burden of proof. Until the harmful effects can be proven, he says marijuana laws deprive Canadians of their rights to life, liberty and security of the person under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He likened the ban on marijuana to the ban on margarine, which the Supreme Court overturned 50 years ago. Government lawyers maintain that it is up to the legislature to determine what "evil it wishes to suppress, and what threatened interest it wishes to safeguard." The same three-judge panel will also hear an appeal from government lawyers in the case of Terry Parker, a Toronto epileptic who in 1997 became the first Canadian to win a court-ordered permit to use marijuana for the medicinal purpose of controlling his seizures. The Crown is asking that Parker be required to apply directly to Allan Rock, the Health Minister, for permission to use the drug. Thursday, October 07, 1999Copyright © Southam Inc. The Compassion Clubhttp://www.thecompassionclub.org/  Pot Safer Than Many Foods, Lawyer Argueshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread3170.shtml

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