CURIOSITY ABOUT DRUGS SHOULDN'T BE A CRIME

For many years, I have been able to successfully stick my head in the
sand about illegal drug use.

My older child started high school this fall. The sand is crumbling away.

I am in my early 50s. I started using drugs later than some of my
acquaintances, earlier than many, and, of course, at about the same
time as most of my good friends. I started smoking marijuana in Grade
8. I first tried cocaine in Grade 10. In addition, I enjoyed
mescaline, speed and acid during my earlier years in university. I
began to drink alcohol late in Grade 11.

Then I started law school. To avoid unnecessary career-destroying
risks, I essentially stopped using illegal drugs. I smoked the odd
joint during law school. With one exception a few years ago, I
haven't touched illegal drugs since. I still drink alcohol, just as
many respectable middle-aged people among us enjoy marijuana.

As a practising lawyer, I have seen the less pleasant effects of
using illegal drugs. Much of it is not pretty. I have dealt with
heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine addicts -- some spiralling down
to a seemingly inevitable and very tawdry end; some successfully
being treated and contributing as a healthy members of society.

I have met career criminals who were first jailed in the 1960s or
1970s because they possessed drugs. They ended up going to a very
different college than I did.

My friends and I were lucky. We broke the law repeatedly, out of
curiosity and youthful self-indulgence. We were not caught. Had we
been caught, the chances are significant that I would be in a federal
penitentiary planning my next crime or out committing that crime.

Whatever we say and whatever we hope, some of our teenaged children
will try some of the drugs out there. Illegality makes it more
difficult to have a real dialogue with our children about the issues
involved, answering their legitimate questions and addressing their
natural curiosity. Some drugs are relatively safe. Others are
frighteningly dangerous because of their possible immediate effects,
or because they are highly addictive or both.

Dealers can be frighteningly dangerous. Most of our children, I hope
and expect, will act responsibly. Some will make serious mistakes and
should be able to turn for help without the stigma of being labelled
a criminal.

Make no mistake. Youthful experimentation with drugs does not stop
because it is criminal. It did not when I was young. It does not now.
But then and now it makes young people into criminals, and nothing
else changes.

We must stop criminalizing our youth unnecessarily. If we with the
experience and power of our generation do not, it will be your child,
or my child, or your good friend's child who provides the next bit of
fodder for the criminal justice system, or is afraid to seek help
when needed. When that happens, it will be our fault.