Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jan 2003
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Kelly Egan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

UPDATE DRUG LAWS, EX-LAWYER TELLS COURT

Accused Of Impaired Driving, He Quotes Bob Dylan In Defence

KILLALOE -- Shedding the odd tear and quoting Bob Dylan, a maverick 
ex-lawyer told a judge yesterday that Canada's marijuana laws need to be 
dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era.

Rick Reimer, once a prominent criminal lawyer in Pembroke, is defending 
himself on one of the more unusual charges ever heard in a Renfrew County 
courtroom.

On Feb. 11, 2002, Mr. Reimer was charged with impaired driving after 
stepping out of his Jeep Cherokee with a marijuana joint dangling from his 
mouth.

OPP Const. Brad Burton had followed the vehicle for about five kilometres 
and noticed it narrowly crossed the centre line on the snow-covered county 
road about five times.

This was no ordinary motorist. Mr. Reimer, 48, suffers from multiple 
sclerosis and has a Health Canada exemption to use marijuana for medical 
purposes.

Since retiring from his law firm in October 2000, Mr. Reimer has become a 
passionate advocate for those needing marijuana for health reasons, and a 
vocal critic of the barrage of regulations they face.

Two police officers have testified that Mr. Reimer, now a Wilno resident, 
appeared to be impaired when he emerged from his vehicle just before noon 
on a sunny morning after a big snowfall.

They observed his unsteady gait, heard his slurred speech and were 
astonished that he wouldn't accept a suggestion that his girlfriend, a 
passenger, take over the driving.

Mr. Reimer, who admits to smoking about 12 joints a day, strenuously denied 
he was impaired by marijuana.

"With all due respect to Const. Burton, it's not his place to tell me you 
can do this, but you can't do that," Mr. Reimer told Ontario Court Justice 
Bruce MacPhee.

The constable had testified he also gave Mr. Reimer the choice of receiving 
a ticket for an obscured licence plate, or a ticket for not wearing his 
seat-belt.

"Instead he gave me this cheesy ultimatum," said Mr. Reimer, appearing 
agitated. "I don't want him to give me a break. I don't want him to give 
you a break. I want him to do his job."

He said Const. Burton and his ride-along that day, Jacqueline LaValley, 
obviously aren't familiar with the typical manifestations of marijuana smoking.

While they urged Mr. Reimer to let his girlfriend take over the wheel, they 
overlooked the fact that she had been smoking pot that morning too.

Mr. Reimer told the court that his disease, diagnosed in 1998, causes the 
symptoms the police took as signs of drug impairment.

The colourful litigant was frank about his marijuana use. He said he began 
smoking when he was 14 and has smoked daily for close to 30 years, with 
short periods of abstention.

He said he was no more impaired by marijuana on Feb. 11 than he was 
yesterday, representing himself in court and arguing points of law. 
"Smoking marijuana does not, I hope, impair my ability to argue a fine 
legal point with a cogency that meets the standard of the court," he 
argued. "If it doesn't impair that ability, one should be careful deciding 
that it impairs my ability to drive."

He said marijuana relieves the nausea he feels every morning, helps with 
orbital headaches, back and leg pain and a crushed-chest sensation common 
to MS victims. The effects of the drug are with him all day, he told the court.

"It doesn't preclude me from driving, from operating a radial arm saw, from 
operating a radio show, where I have to keep track of two CD players, two 
turntables, four microphones, play the guitar and read a poem at the same 
time."

Unlike someone impaired by alcohol, the Crown has no blood or breath 
analysis indicating how much THC, marijuana's active ingredient, was in Mr. 
Reimer's system that day.

Instead, it called a toxicologist who testified about the general physical 
effects of smoking marijuana. Dr. Robert Langille, from the Centre for 
Forensic Sciences in Toronto, admitted yesterday he has not published any 
original research on marijuana use and its impacts on driving. Instead, he 
had reviewed some of the existing literature.

"To quote Bob Dylan," Mr. Reimer said later, "you don't need a weatherman 
to know which way the wind is blowing."

The accused said the studies on marijuana and driving have conclusions all 
over the spectrum. Many, he argued, found drivers were more cautious and 
self-critical. The most damaging finding in the research, he argued, is 
that large amounts of THC in the system are no worse than a driver at the 
legal limit of .08 of alcohol.

The trial continues today in Pembroke.
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MAP posted-by: Tom