MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGAL, SENATOR SAYS

A Conservative senator from Quebec says pot should be legalized -- and
sold like beer and wine.

"I'm against decriminalization. To me, it's the worst scenario," Sen.
Pierre Claude Nolin said yesterday. "If we're going to end
prohibition, let's do it properly."

Nolin, who has chaired the Senate committee on illegal drugs since
2001, was speaking at an international conference on harm reduction in
Vancouver.

He argued that current drug laws discriminate unfairly against young
people, who are more likely to look suspicious to police and lack a
private place to use drugs.

"We shouldn't try to ban the substance. We should try to prevent
problematic use of it," Nolin said.

If government controlled the sale of marijuana, it would take the pot
trade out of the hands of organized criminals and ensure the drug is
not laced with other drugs or harmful chemicals, he said.

Simple decriminalization of pot possession addresses neither of these
issues, Nolin added.

The senator, who was appointed in 1993 by then-prime minister Brian
Mulroney, said the provinces should decide how to control drugs, in
the same way they control alcohol sales.

In 2002, the Senate committee released a report that quoted research
showing that pot was less harmful than alcohol.

It went on to call for government-regulated pot sales to anyone over
16.

A spokesman for Justice Minister Vic Toews confirmed in March that
possession of marijuana would remain a crime under the newly elected
Conservative government.