FATHER KNOWS BUDS

Watch Out, Parent Tokers - Reefer-Mad Children's Aid Societies Could
Come Knocking On Your Door

Given the medicinal qualities of cannabis, one could argue that
toking parents might be more relaxed caregivers, more capable of
handling screaming teething babies or puberty-confused teenagers. But
don't tell that to child protection agencies across the province
currently dragging parents - including those using the herb
medicinally - to court for allegedly endangering their children's well-being.

How many pot-related cases are currently before the courts or on
child protection agency files is difficult to estimate. These
agencies say they don't keep such stats. But the number is in the
dozens, according to medical marijuana users who've been visited by
social workers. The cases are usually prompted by complaints from a
former spouse or info turned over by police who've busted medical
users for growing their own.

Several Toronto Compassion Club (TCC) members are currently under the
watchful eye of the Catholic Children's Aid Society. They decline to
speak on the record to NOW about their experiences for fear of
reprisals from CCAS.

But such encounters with child protection agencies across the
province suggest that social workers' personal views on pot are
skewing their decisions about whether cannabis impairs parenting skills.

"It's a never-ending battle because parents have to prove their use
is medicinal," says TCC executive director Jim Brydges.

Just ask medical pot user Travis Azzopardi how nasty CCAS can get.
He's willing to talk publicly now that his case has been settled. He
says CCAS demanded he undergo 365 urine tests over a three-year
period - weekly, biweekly, then finally randomly. "They stuck a
microscope up my ass for two and a half years," he says.

Azzopardi's non-verbal autistic son Brandon is 18 years old and just
recently learned to use the toilet.

"They said I might get stoned and pass out, and he'd turn on the
stove and burn the house down," explains Azzopardi, who's on a
disability pension and smokes to alleviate pain from severe
migraines. "The doobies barely make me normal. But they didn't give a
damn about it being medicinal, even with two doctors' letters."

Steve Bacon, another licensed medical user investigated, says child
protection officials he dealt with for eight months never noticed
when he showed up medicated to meetings. Yet he says they were making
decisions about whether he could keep his daughter based on the
assumption his marijuana use was impairing his ability to care for her.

"I told them I'd been smoking before every meeting. Last I ever heard
from them."

Like Ontario's building inspectors and animal control officers,
Children's Aid workers can enter a dwelling sans warrant.

The one guard against overzealousness built into the system is the
requirement that a worker appear before a judge within five days to
explain his or her reasons for entering a premises.

The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies created the
"eligibility spectrum" as a tool for assessing whether a child is
being abused and how severely. But "the spectrum is not intended to
replace worker judgment," according to the document outlining its
applicability.

Suset Silva of the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto
responds to questions about pot cases via e-mail. "The level of
concern [about marijuana] would depend on the level of the use, the
exposure of the children to the use and the impact of the use on the
ability to parent," she writes.

"It is not possible to comment on the frequency [with which] the
society might request drug testing for a client. It could happen on
an individual case, but would depend on several factors that would be
taken into consideration when assessing risk to the child(ren) and
planning for a desired outcome."

But does cannabis consumption adversely affect parenting skills?

Not according to McMaster sociology prof Andy Hathaway, who's also a
researcher at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and recently
completed a study on the stigma associated with pot use.

"Cannabis doesn't impair parenting," says Hathaway, but stereotypes
surrounding its consumption are having a negative impact on parents.

"We're hesitant to be open about cannabis because the social stigmas
are still there. Weeds or That '70s Show, may be expressions of
pro-cannabis culture, but temperance is setting social policy
directives," Hathaway says. "I don't think it's that uncommon for a
mother to test positive for cannabis and then have her child taken
away, because it's very much a temperance issue. She smokes pot,
hence she must be a bad parent."

But lawyer Roselyn Zisman, who specializes in family law, says she
would be shocked if the CAS were taking the children of pot-puffing
parents into custody.

"Generally, a social worker wouldn't consider this a concern if it's
just recreational cannabis. Marijuana is still illegal, but social
workers are not the police. Is there a different agenda with these
cases? I've never seen it."

Still, Zisman adds, agencies can be "very intrusive."

Chris Goodwin, a recreational user and activist who runs the Up in
Smoke Cafe in Hamilton, knows that all too well.

Area child protection workers, he says, came calling for a hair
sample and asking about his son this past summer after he took part
in an anti-prohibition rally at which he gave away a quarter-pound of
weed. The agency was responding to a police report in which he
admitted smoking in front of his son Chris.

Goodwin is not about to let the ordeal shut him up. He says it's the
police who are actually putting his son in harm's way by threatening
to have CCAS remove him, not his pot smoking.

"Some people say I'm playing with fire. But I never brought this one
on me," Goodwin says. "It's different down at the store. There, I'm
an activist, but I'm a dad and husband at home."