MARIJUANA LAW LIKELY TO DIE AGAIN

OTTAWA - The Commons justice committee is unlikely to deal with the
government's controversial bill decriminalizing marijuana before the
federal election, the committee's chairman says.

Liberal MP John Maloney said yesterday he wants the committee to give
priority to another half-dozen criminal justice bills before tackling
Bill C-17, which will take possession of small amounts of cannabis
out of the Criminal Code and make it a minor, ticketable offence.

"We all know there is an election pending, it could be this fall, it
could be next March," Mr. Maloney said. "I would rather try to
dispose of legislation as quickly and as much as we could before an
election, and hopefully get some of these bills into law."

The marijuana bill, which also contains tougher penalties for anyone
who cultivates marijuana on a large scale for trafficking, was once a
pride of the Liberal government and mentioned in two throne speeches.
But it has died on the order paper twice since first being introduced
by the former government of Jean Chretien.