DECRIMINALIZE POT: CAMPBELL

B.C. Senator And Ex-Mayor Says Possession Should Result In Fine

Possession of marijuana should result in a fine, not a criminal
record, says Sen. Larry Campbell.

"If we're going to call people who have smoked pot criminals, half
the country would be criminals," Campbell, a former Vancouver mayor,
coroner and RCMP drug cop, said yesterday. "We don't see marijuana
users going around beating and robbing people. They don't fit the
criminal profile but there's a criminal stigma attached that means
people can't get into the States."

Campbell said he has never smoked marijuana but believes pot
possession should result in a fine only. Campbell was responding to a
United Nations report that five million Canadians smoked pot in 2004.

"We should take over the growing side. That's the problem. Legalize
it, tax the hell out of it and put the money into health care," he
said. "Do the over 600,000 Canadians who currently have criminal
records for cannabis possession really deserve such a label? This
number represents teachers, lawyers, doctors and parents who make
daily contributions to our society and yet are labeled as unsavoury
when they cross the border."

Campbell, a Liberal senator, also urged the government to increase
education and prevention efforts.

Pot activist Marc Emery and his wife, Jodie, celebrated Campbell's
declaration yesterday with a bong hit in the B.C. Marijuana Party's
Vancouver headquarters.

Emery, who has been charged with marijuana offences 22 times, said a
fine is better than going to court. But U.S. authorities could still
access information showing the fine had been levied and deny people
entry. "The fine will still show up on their records at the border," he said.

Emery said the number of people convicted of possessing pot in
Vancouver has increased since 2003, when the federal Liberal
government was considering decriminalizing pot possession. When the
Conservatives took power in 2006, the bill to decriminalize small
amounts of marijuana was killed.

Campbell's proposal was slammed by Randy White, president of the Drug
Prevention Network of Canada and a former Conservative MP.

White said Campbell has his head in the sand.

"We've moved past the legalization debate," he said. "The issue has
been to every committee possible and it hasn't moved. It's time to
give that up and focus on what's really important. The answer is an
effective treatment and prevention program, and we're moving forward on that."

John Banovich, spokesman for the Greater Vancouver chapter of Mothers
Against Drunk Driving, said anything that increases marijuana
consumption is troubling.

"We are very concerned with the use of drugs that could cause
impairment when using a motor vehicle," he said.

Banovich said he has been on numerous roadblocks with police and seen
drivers impaired by marijuana.

"Law enforcement needs more tools to test for the use of narcotics,"
he said. "If [drugs are] more accessible I'm afraid we'll see the use
increase even more."

Chief provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall said research shows
the drug is not as addictive as tobacco or alcohol, but chronic users
can develop dependency.

As for arguments that marijuana is a "gateway" drug to hard drug use,
Kendall said research doesn't find that to be true, although
"risk-takers" who are likely to engage in marijuana use might be more
likely to also use other illegal drugs.

A world drug-use study by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, released
Monday, said 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked pot in
2004, the most recent year for which statistics were cited.

The report found marijuana use in Canada is the highest in the
industrialized world, far higher than in the Netherlands, where it's
legal, and more than four times the global rate.

It also said cannabis use around the world appears to have stabilized
and appears to be declining in North America. A plunge in use by
Ontario high-school students was cited as a factor in the trend.

The same UN office in 2006 revealed the potency of marijuana has
increased dramatically over the past few decades.

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