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Ill Americans Seek Marijuana's Relief in Canada September 8, 2002 By CLIFFORD KRAUSS VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Four decades ago, a wave of American draft dodgers fled to Canada rather than fight in Vietnam. Some turned to planting marijuana seeds to make a living and spurred an underground industry that is now booming across British Columbia. Over the last year or so, a new generation of Americans has flocked into western Canada, fleeing the Bush administration's crackdown on the clubs that say they provide marijuana to sick people, particularly in California. A handful who face drug charges and convictions in the United States have applied for political asylum. Hundreds more American marijuana smokers live underground existences here, local marijuana advocates say. Canada is in the awkward position in which it either must stand up to the United States - and encourage more refugees and asylum applications - or evict people who say they suffer from cancer and other deadly diseases. While general use of marijuana is illegal in both countries, Canada has been far more tolerant of its use for medical purposes. "It's an exodus," said Renee Boje, 32, a California fugitive from drug charges who has applied for refugee status. "Canada has a history of protecting the American people from its own government like during the Vietnam War, and the Underground Railroad that protected American runaway slaves." Most of the Americans here do not face charges at home, marijuana advocates say, but came because they can get the drug more cheaply and easily here now since the American clubs were shut down. "Compassion clubs" thrive in several Canadian communities to serve what they say are the medical needs of severe pain sufferers. "In the last year the number of Americans coming and intending to stay has skyrocketed," said Marc Emery, president of the B. C. Marijuana Party, who provides legal aid to the Americans. He estimated that the number of recent arrivals was "in the hundreds." Some of them work on farms, living a countercultural life not very different from that of the previous generation of American refugees. Others are living on the street, or moving from couch to couch in homes of Canadian marijuana users. Some have gone into businesses like herbal medicine stores or work in marijuana cultivation. To Bush administration officials, the American fugitives are simply lawbreakers. "It's regrettable that people who are charged with criminal offenses in the United States don't face justice here and put a burden on another country," said John Walters, President Bush's drug policy chief. He said that there was no evidence that smoking marijuana was an effective medicine, and that the agenda of many who argue for medicinal marijuana is to legalize drugs. Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Drug Enforcement Administration director, Asa Hutchinson, have stiffened enforcement against marijuana clubs that had grown around California after an initiative called Proposition 215 passed in 1996, making marijuana legal for treating some sick people. Asserting the superiority of federal antidrug laws, federal agencies have raided some clubs, and others have closed or gone underground. Steven W. Tuck, a 35-year-old disabled veteran of the Army, fled to Canada pretending he was going fishing after his club was repeatedly raided and he faced drug charges. He was arrested for overstaying his visa and, fearing deportation, applied for refugee status. Sitting recently in Vancouver's Amsterdam Cafe, where smoking marijuana is allowed, he was sweating and shaking awaiting a friend who had gone out to buy some. "I have to have marijuana to stay alive," said Mr. Tuck, who said his torment began in 1987 with an Army parachuting accident that caused spinal and brain injuries. If he is sent home and denied marijuana, Mr. Tuck says, he fears he will die "choking on my vomit in jail." The Canadian Justice Ministry will not discuss refugee cases. To grant asylum, Canada would have to determine that the Americans would face unwarranted persecution at home. The cases come at a time when the cabinet and Parliament are discussing whether to decriminalize marijuana, with many Canadians arguing that American attitudes are overly restrictive. [On Sept. 4, a Canadian Senate committee recommended that the country legalize marijuana use for people over 16.] There is also a cabinet debate over whether the government should provide marijuana to chronically ill Canadians or conduct clinical trials first. "We can't base our policy on social issues like this on American standards, especially in an area where they're very conservative," said Industry Minister Allan Rock, a former health minister who believes that chronically ill patients should have access to quality-controlled marijuana. The most prominent American fugitive here is Steve Kubby, 55, the Libertarian Party candidate for governor of California in 1998. He and his wife, Michele, have an Internet news program on marijuana issues. They fled California last year for the rural British Columbia town of Sechelt after the police found 265 marijuana plants, a mushroom stem and some peyote buttons in their house. Mr. Kubby had been sentenced to four months of house arrest and three months of probation, which he feared might eventually lead to a prison term in which he would be denied the marijuana that he says he needs to treat his adrenal cancer. "If I don't smoke pot," he said, "my blood pressure goes through the roof and would either burst a blood vessel or cause a heart attack." He appealed his sentence, then brought his family to Canada. He was arrested here, and he could be deported. Meanwhile, he applied for permission to cultivate and possess marijuana for his own medical use. He provided Canadian authorities with a letter from a University of British Columbia doctor who substantiated his need "to continue to use cannabis to control the symptoms caused by his disease." The government recently granted him the right to grow and possess a limited amount for a year, which advocates viewed as a major victory. "It's threatening to the whole ideology of prohibition," Mr. Kubby said, "which says any marijuana use is criminal." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/08/international/americas/08VANC.html?ex=1032455072&ei=1&en=308caa409f3c515c HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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