Pubdate: Sun, 15 Dec 2002
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Peter Edwards, Staff Reporter
Alert: Please Help Canadians Understand What We Really Believe 
http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0258.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

SHOPS HOPE EASING LAW NO PIPE DREAM

Step in Right Direction, Head Shop Owners Say Ottawa Looks To
Decriminalize Marijuana Use

Call it a mild case of Reefer Gladness.

That's the reaction at area head shops and high-end "cannabis culture
shops" to news from Ottawa that laws against personal puffing of
marijuana could soon be decriminalized, and punishable only by a ticket.

"It's a small step in the right direction," says Dominic Cramer,
president of the Toronto Hemp Company at Yonge and Charles Sts.

"It's a good step, but not going far enough," echoes Robin Ellins,
proprietor of the Friendly Stranger cannabis culture shop on Queen St.
W.

However, the news from Ottawa wasn't enough to push notables in the
local hemp community to break out the champagne -- or big fat bongs --
to celebrate.

Ellins said he finds it bizarre that the current proposals would allow
for the decriminalization of the personal growth of a single marijuana
plant.

"You can't grow just one plant," he says. "You've got to grow two to
five to have one you can take to maturity."

And if that plant really matures well, it would yield between two and
four times the proposed legal limit, Ellins said.

He also has problems with the fact that hashish and related products
would remain illegal, even with the proposed changes in the law.

Ellins bristles at the grubby connotation of "head shop," and his
high-end boutique on trendy Queen St. W. is anything but seedy.

He prefers the terms "high-end hemp shop," or "cannabis culture shop"
and is distinctly uncomfortable with the whole underground culture for
marijuana use and sales.

"The fact that it's a huge underground economy is ridiculous," he
says.

As he talks, it quickly becomes clear that the days are long gone when
puffing on marijuana was an exclamation of counterculture rebellion,
even though it's still technically a jailable criminal offence. In his
vision of how things should be, Ellins would like a point-of-sale tax,
with all money raised going to the health-care system.

What he doesn't want is for the growth of marijuana to be turned over
to others, like the tobacco companies.

"We don't want the government growing our pot," he
says.

He does support regulation for levels of the psychoactive ingredient --
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- in cannabis sold, as well as controls on
amount sold and the ages of people who are allowed to buy it, and
licensing of sources.

Customers at his boutique yesterday had to be reminded that no laws
have changed -- yet. That included calls from a number of Americans,
who wanted directions to cafes where they could freely purchase and
smoke marijuana.

Matt McGraw runs The Lotus head shop in Newmarket on Main St. N.,
where he talks with near-religious fervour about the hemp plant, and
sells a variety of pipes, wrapping papers and incense, along with
carvings and jewelry from Indonesia, India and Africa and eco-friendly
furniture from reclaimed wood.

McGraw says he supports marijuana use "on a spiritual level, rather
than an ignorant level."

"It seems the things society supports are always numbing, like alcohol
and tobacco," McGraw says. "You want to rearrange brain cells, not
destroy them."

In McGraw's perfect world, folks like himself would be free to run
cafes where customers could openly dine upon cannabis seeds and oils,
the way he imagines hunter-gatherers did in days of old.

McGraw is quite sure MPs in Ottawa don't share his vision, and reacted
with great skepticism to news of recommendations from the Commons.

He worries that it's all a ploy to yank profits from a plant which he
feels should be freely grown.

"If it was fully legal, there would be taxation by the government. I'm
against that. I want to keep it for the people."

Before McGraw set up shop, many Newmarket hemp-enthusiasts bought
products from Shawn Stockman, who ran the Happy Hempster head shop on
Davis Dr. beside Huron Heights Secondary School. The business was shut
down in 2001, after an employee was found with marijuana in the store.

Still, the news from Ottawa left him feeling mildly
upbeat.

"I think it's a positive move," says Stockman, who was hit with a
$1,500 fine for selling or promoting tools for illicit drug use.

"Legalization would be a better move. I think it's long
overdue."

Dominic Cramer, proprietor of the Toronto Hemp Company, finds himself
feeling "mostly skeptical, but a wee bit positive" after hearing the
news from Ottawa.

Keeping marijuana illegal would only benefit criminals and alarmists,
he says.

"There's just so much profit to be made by organized
crime."

He adds: "It's just a plant. Slightly more enjoyable than other
plants."

Several customers at THC on Friday afternoon were high school-age
boys, and a 17-year-old Grade 12 student says he finds the move to
decriminalize marijuana a little ironic.

It might actually make it less appealing to teenagers, who bristle at
the thought of being mainstream, he says. "That little edge goes away." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake