London hemp store proprietor Chris Clay and his lawyer Alan Young talk to reporters Tuesday during a break in the trial.
Photo source: SUSAN BRADNAM/The London Free Press

LONDON (April 25, 1997) - Freedom Party became the only political party in Canada to place its official support behind an effort that has been called the most comprehensive challenge to Canada's drug laws ever launched. Our support was offered in the form of a $500 cheque payable to the 'Hemp Nation Constitutional Challenge', and was presented to Hemp Nation owner Chris Clay at his store on Richmond Street in London by Fp representative Ray Monteith.

Mounted by Canadian constitutional law expert Professor Alan Young, the constitutional challenge stemmed from a May 17, 1995 police raid on Clay's store, Hemp Nation, where he was charged with drug trafficking for selling marijuana seeds and seedlings. The court case commenced in London before the Ontario Court (General Division) on April 28.

"Young's case is designed to confront Canada's drug warriors with the truth about cannabis," said Clay. This objective just happened to coincide with Monteith's personal campaign (and with Fp's public information campaign) against drug prohibition.

Subsequent to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act coming into force in May/97, it was provided that the charge of simple possession was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Provincial Court where the amount involved was not more than 30 grams of marijuana. In addition to charges laid for selling seeds and seedlings, Clay had been charged with possession of 6.1 grams of marijuana found in his home, after another police raid there.

Fp's $500 cheque represented a purchase of 20 'victory bonds', which were being sold by Clay to assist him with legal costs.

Clay's case generated coast-to-coast media attention, as an impressive list of expert witnesses from all over the North American continent were brought in to testify in his defence.

Fp OFFERS ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

LONDON (May 12, 1997) - At the entrance of London's courthouse and in the presence of media cameras and reporters, Ray Monteith presented Chris Clay with a second Freedom Party cheque in the amount of $500 payable to the 'Hemp Nation Constitutional Challenge'. The second contribution was made in an effort to help Clay defray a $3000 shortfall relating to expenses incurred in bringing several high-profile witnesses to the trial.

"Simply getting witnesses of this stature before the courts is an accomplishment in and of itself," said Fp president Robert Metz in a media release announcing the contribution. "Even if Clay loses his current case, the Crown will be forced to expose the injustice, illogic, and cruelty of its misdirected drug policies. It will have to justify itself against overwhelming evidence that the prohibition of marijuana is futile and counterproductive."

That list of witnesses included: federal Agriculture Canada scientist Ernest Small; Gordon Scheifele, PhD., Research Scientist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture at Ridgetown College; Jeff Shurie, a former London school teacher and past director of HEMP Canada; Dr. Patricia Erickson, Senior Scientist with the Addiction Research Foundation, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Graduate, Collaborative Program in Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Psychoactive Substances at the University of Toronto, author of a number of books including Cannabis Criminals: The Social Effects of Punishment on Drug Users, co-editor of Illicit Drugs in Canada, and a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy; Professor Marie Andree Bertrand, Professor Emeritus of Criminology at the University of Montreal, President of the International Anti-Prohibitionist League in Brussels, and member of Canada's Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs (the LeDain Commission, 1969-73); Assistant Professor Diane M. Riley of the Department of Behaviourial Science, University of Toronto, Policy Analyst at the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, Former Senior Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, and author of a number of papers on cannabis; Eugene Oscapella, lawyer and founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy; Professor Eric Single, Director of Policy Analysis and Research at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse; Dr. Heinz Lehmann, Psychiatrist and Professor at McGill University, recipient of the Alaska Award for psychopharmacological research, as well as the Order of Canada, and former Commissioner on the LeDain Commission; Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, recipient of the Alfred Lindesmith Award Achievement in the Field of Scholarship, author of 29 articles and two books on cannabis (Marihuana Reconsidered and Marihuana: Forbidden Medicine), and editor of the Harvard Mental Health Letter; Neil Boyd, Professor of Criminology at Simon University and author of High Society: Legal and Illegal Drugs in Canada; Bruce Rosell, head of the Bureau of Dangerous Drugs in Ottawa (responsible for drug enforcement for all of Canada); Neev Tapeiro, founder of Toronto's first medical marijuana buyer's club; Lynn Harichy, a medical user who finds it helps her multiple sclerosis; Brenda Rochford, another medical user who says it helps her cellular disorder; Dr. John P. Morgan, Professor of Pharmacology at CUNY Medical School, and researcher into cannabis and its effects for over 25 years.

The only expert witness appearing for the Crown was Dr. Harold Kalant of the Addiction Research Foundation.

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002