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; Mariiuana~&5. growing fastest! TORONTO(CP) - The

use of marijuana hasgrown at a faster pacethan other stimulants sucha alcohol and pep pills, anannual survey by the Ad~diction Research Founda-tion of Ontario shows,

The survey.re'leasedthis week. shows marijua-na use has increased to 8.6per cent from the 5.8 percent last year based on asurvey of 1.059adults over18years and an additional100males. aged 18to 20,

More males (87,1 percent) than fe~ales (76.5)reported alc0401 COBSump~tion, while more femaJes(17.3per cent) than male~(9.4 per cent) r~BOrt.~ y,~"ing tranquillizef§:

The additic:uud 100males were surveyed toverify findi~g§wl1ichshowep males age<! 18 to20 consumed the mostalcohol and marijuana, Ofthis group, 93 percentreported consuming alco-hol, 41 per cent used mari-juana and six per centused stimulants or peppills. .

Of the survey's total rl;participants who reportedconsuming alcohol. 13.1percent said they drank daily,/in the last 12 months. 51.5per cent said they had;five ,or more drinks at one sit-ting and 40 per cent hadbecome 'high' or :tight' atleast once,

Consumption of alcoholwas most, common among:French.speaking individu-als (92 per cent); thosehaving a university ~duca-tion (90 per cent); those inprofessional or executivepositions (89.5 per cent) Ifand in sales or clerical

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and thos~ ecn1!ii1g $15.000 .tOf p1or~ per year (~.9 pt!rcent). - . ~

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underestimate the extent of Ialcohol and drug use by rOntario's total.population," .the foundation said.

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IMonkeys buildr! , ~JN~7/7?5'drug tolerance~"GAINESVILLE, fla. (AP)

- Monkeys quickly buildup a tolerance to marijua-na so that even massivedoses have li!tle effect ontheir co-ordination. and thesame effect could be ex-pected in human smokers,says a University of Flori-

" da researcher.

Marc Branch. a psychol-ogy professor. is in the"fourth year of expenm,entswith monkeys. He injectsSOme with THC. the activechemical ingredient inmarijuana, and comparestheir ability to performsimple tasks with un-drugged monkeys..

"Tolerance to marijuanacan get very large," Branchsaid. "Doses that initially"suppress' behavior the firstthree or four times. laterwill have no effect."

He said a "reverse toler-ance" reported by somefrequent marijuana smok-

" 'ers. who say they requirelessYof the drug the longer~~ey use it, can be attribut-ed to increased skill atadministering the drugrather than to any chemi-cal effect.

Branch said he foundthat monkeys lti,arn to func-

tion under the effects of " I

marijuana more quickly ifthey are required to per-form a fixed amount ofwor\c rather than' a vari-able amount.I

It also appears theybuild up a tolerance to themotor effects of the drugon such things as co-ordi-nation and balance, butnot to the sensory effects.he said.

Of course. Branch said,monkeys are shelteredfrom extraneous distrac-tions ~uring the controlledlaboratory tests. which isquite different from adrugged person trying todrive an automobile.

Until recently. Branchconcentrated on toleranceto marijuana. but no)\' heis researching with co-caine, qmphetamines andmorphine.

Most monkeys are givena drug daily for 45 to 60days, but one monkey wasgiven amphetamines for160 days.

"By the end of the test itwas difficult to tell himfrom the normal monkeys."Branch said.

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BoJJMcKee

II mUstbe a strange kind of justice beinghanded out in Alberta courts when statisticsshow this, province imposes the hardestsentences in Canada' for marijuanapossession. . '

If the most recent available statisticsfrom the Federal Department of Health andWelfare are to reJiedon, the number ofdischarges relating to drug offences inAlberta fall far behind those of otherprovinces, ..

In a half-hearted effort tp decriminalizecurrent marijuana laws the federal govern-ment brought, in 1972,an amendment to thecriminal code giving the judiciary discre-tJonarypowers relating to first-time drugoffenders. ,

The amendment provided for an absolute. or conditional discharge which allowed

offenders to be convicted of possessionwithout having the stigma of a criminalrecord. .

In essence, drug offenders such asmarijuana smokers don't necessarily have to

~~ branding them as

Ii\\ that monkeys learn to tunc- "..u """."'.

"'r ..",.,.. ,. "'!" . r"~' ..'Alberta's .strange 'Justice

Depending on the attitude of, presidingjudges a substantial fine - akin to offencessuch as minor traffic infractions -'- can beconsidered enough of a deterrent.

In provinces such as Ontario, Manitobaand Saskatchewan the amendment hasproduced on the part of the judiciary agreater emphasis towardsdecriminalization.

Department of Health and Welfarestatistics show that in 197638 per cent Qfthose convicted for drug possession inOntario were given discharges. Manitobashowed a discharge ratio of 37per cent whileSaskatchewan registered .24..per cent. Mostof the possession convictions are believed tobe realted to marijuana.

In Alberta three per cent of thoseconvictions for drug offences were granteddischarges.

A total of 6,683 people were given acriminal record for drug possession. A mere21'1 received the discretionary discharge.And that only accounts for one year.

Assuming those statistics accuratelyreflect current judicial thiI)king, it seemsalmost inconceivable that we should insiston enforcing so-called jl.l8tice with s~chrigor.

At a time when the decriminalization ofminor durg offences is being favored bymany influencing groups including all majorpolitical parties, why should the judiciary ofAlberta adopt what is blatantly a harshattitude?

It may well be that there has been aradical change of heart during the past 18months. It may well be that the judiciary isaware that Prime' Minister Trudeau hasgone on record saying he wants to pushahead with legislation that would removemarijuana possession from the criminalcode. And that the other political partieshave voiced support, in principal, to themove.

Specialists in drug law. have saiddecriminalization will hardly open up thefloodgates to £Itidal wave of drug use.

Those may well be considerations that

could be assumf!d to be taken underadvisement when young - or old - appearbefore the courts on minor drug charges.

However, one only has to spend a day inprovincial court listening to minor posses-sion cases to determine the justice of asystem that relies to at least some extent onthe current mood of the judge.

True, decriminalization is seeping inthrough the courts. Few offenders are liableto end-up with the possible jail term that'swritten into possession convictions, but thenagain, how~much g()Odcan be attained byrefusing to grant discharges?

Perhaps, if as anti-marijuana lawsactivist Keith Stroup recently suggested,that offender prostrate themselves before .judges promising never to commit the samecrime, perhaps then a more favorable viewwill be taken.

But regardless of a solution such as that,there can be little love for a system thatturns.. a room of justice into a sausagefactory that churns out fines and convictionsmerely for the sake of doing so.

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