CITY OF VANCOUVER POT PLAN CLOUDED IN A HAZE OF UNREALITY

A City of Vancouver proposal that Ottawa legalize and regulate marijuana
should be taken with a big pinch of salt.

The bold suggestion, contained in a 67-page report released yesterday, is
part of an overall drug-abuse prevention strategy authored by the city's
drug policy co-ordinator, Don MacPherson.

It's been praised by Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, who believes that if
pot production were legalized the community could benefit, because the
drug's production could be taxed.

But Campbell is quick to concede that his city's stand on this endlessly
debated issue will not produce immediate change, because it's one for the
federal government to decide.

And so far Ottawa has shown it prefers decriminalization (under which users
of small amounts of pot are fined but not given criminal records) to
outright legalization (which puts pot on the same legal footing as booze
and cigarettes).

Also, we think Ottawa should do some careful research before adopting the
city's pot plan, given medical indications that smoking marijuana is at
least as harmful as smoking tobacco.

Indeed, it's ironic the city would choose to release its report on the day
Canada's Supreme Court starts examining the validity of a B.C. law that
would let Victoria recoup the massive health-care costs of treating
smokers. That court case illustrates well how drug legalization is not the
panacea it's often cracked up to be -- at least by Vancouver city officials.