CANADA COULD BE A WORLD LEADER IN SMARTER DRUG STRATEGIES

For the past three days, we have examined how the federal government's
prohibitionist approach to dealing with marijuana has utterly failed
to reduce the supply of, or demand for, the drug. Cannabis use appears
to be associated with cultural and social factors, rather than with
the harshness of the laws or the degree of their enforcement.

Nevertheless, successive governments have spent billions of dollars
enforcing the law, and organized crime has reaped billions of dollars
in profits from trade in marijuana and other illicit drugs. Marijuana
laws have made criminals out of pot smokers, and have allowed
organized crime, and its attendant violence, to flourish.

It was for these reasons that the LeDain Commission recommended 30
years ago that Canada end the legal prohibition on marijuana
possession. And it was for these reasons that the Senate Committee on
Illegal Drugs, in the most comprehensive report on marijuana since
LeDain, recommended in 2002 that trade in marijuana be legalized and
regulated.

Finally, it was for these reasons that in 1998, dignitaries from
Europe, Latin America, Canada and the United States sent a letter to
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan declaring that the war on
drugs, rather than than drug use, has caused most of the social,
political, legal and moral problems associated with illicit drugs.

Despite the abundant evidence about the benefits of the legalization
and regulation of marijuana -- in addition to weakening (though not
eliminating) organized crime, regulation would allow governments to
control the strength and purity of marijuana, and would allow for
coherent programs aimed at prevention or responsible use -- no country
in the world has proceeded with legalization.

(De facto legalization exists in the Netherlands, but marijuana laws
remain on the books and those trading in large amounts of the drug
remain subject to prosecution, which ensures the continued existence
of a criminal underground there.)

Countries have failed to consider legalization for a number of
reasons: The U.S. has exerted enormous pressure on the world to
maintain the war on drugs, and it often ties foreign aid to a
country's commitment to prosecuting that war. Even countries that rely
only on U.S. trade, not aid -- such as Canada -- face ferocious
opposition from the U.S. anytime legalization, or even
decriminalization, is discussed. If we needed any more evidence on
this score, we got it in spades on Wednesday. U.S. drug czar John
Walters linked the increasing number of American teenagers seeking
addiction treatment with Canadian pot exports.

In addition, most Western nations are signatories to a number of
international conventions that require them to maintain legal
proscriptions against trade in marijuana. Not surprisingly, the U.S.
played a pivotal role in the promulgation of these
conventions.

Despite the intransigence of the U.S. and the existence of
international protocols against marijuana legalization, many countries
recognize the folly of the war on drugs, and are, therefore, open to
discussing legalization and regulation. Canada is particularly well
suited to promoting such discussions.

After all, the Canadian justice system is admired throughout the
world, and Canada has already taken some novel approaches to deal with
drug abuse. In addition to the possible decriminalization of marijuana
through the new bill before Parliament, Vancouver is host to a
supervised-injection site for heroin addicts, and several Canadian
cities, including Vancouver, are participating in the North American
Opiate Medication Initiative, which is studying the effects of
prescribing heroin to hardcore addicts.

Both the supervised-injection site and the NAOMI trials are the
subjects of scientific studies, and the government should also assess
the impact of marijuana decriminalization should that become a
reality. By developing a national office on drug policy and a national
strategy on drugs, Canada could gather and disseminate the effects of
these novel approaches to drug use. In concert with the many European
nations that are taking similar steps, Canada could take a leading
role in prompting discussion about alternatives to marijuana
prohibition.

The U.S. might well remain intransigent, but as the international
community harnesses and distributes more and more evidence about the
harm caused by the war on marijuana, some nations might feel empowered
to consider marijuana legalization and regulation on a trial basis.
Should such trials prove successful, other countries would likely follow.

All of this must begin, though, with a commitment from Ottawa to
develop a national drug strategy, and to communicate the results of
its work to the world. The world is not losing the war on marijuana:
It's a war we've already lost. Canada can help to unify the globe in
its efforts to minimize the harms caused not only by drugs, but by
drug laws.