LIBERALS SHOULD FORGET MARIJUANA LAW CHANGES

I was having lunch with a couple of staunch Liberals the other day and
one of them made an interesting observation about a big problem facing
Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government right now.

The federal Liberals have placed far too much emphasis on their social
agenda, the Liberal said. It makes for bad policy because the
government can't focus on any one thing. It also makes for bad
politics because people don't want that much social policy change at
any given time.

The wise Liberal was right. Martin's biggest problem right now is a
social agenda that has grown too broad -- and in some cases, too bold
- -- for him to handle.

You think they would have learned.

After all, the Liberals have spent much of the last decade waging a
losing war to justify the social policy that is the federal gun
registry. The result has been a billion-dollar boondoggle and a lot of
Western alienation.

Undaunted, they went from the issue of gun control right into gay
marriage -- an issue they might be receiving more credit for as
politically courageous and progressive were they able to focus on
selling the policy rather than attempting to sell other policies.

And now, the Liberal noted, delegates at the party's federal
convention in Ottawa are deeply embroiled in the issues of missile
defence (which should really be categorized in Canada as a social
issue rather than a military one), legalized prostitution (now being
promoted by one Senator) and the decriminalization of marijuana.

"The public may accept two of five issues, but it's that third issue
that has them saying they'll vote for someone else," the Liberal said,
adding, that sooner or later, one of those issues explodes in the
government's face.

"It becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back."

I left lunch, got in my car turned on my car radio and heard the
stomach-turning news that four RCMP officers had been shot to death in
a raid of a northern Alberta marijuana grow operation.

And I couldn't help thinking about what my Liberal friend said about a
government pushing too many social policies until you encounter that
one that breaks the camel back.

Martin and the federal Liberals need to alter course on their
marijuana law -- not just for political reasons, but because it's the
right thing to do right now. The only thing right now that could be
more tragic than the deaths of the four constables would be for their
deaths to be in vain because of the federal Liberals' stubborn
insistence on maintaining their wrong-headed direction.

Perhaps those federal Liberals and others who have deemed marijuana a
harmless drug with no consequences should try and explain that to the
families of the fallen officers.

RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli may have put it best when he
called grow operations "a major, serious threat" and "a plague on our
society now."

Zaccardelli offered graphic detail of the dangers his officers face in
dealing with the increasingly lucrative grow op industries -- the very
same dangers that culminated in tragic consequences near Mayerthorpe,
Alta, Thursday where 46-year-old James Roszko gunned down the four
officers.

In fairness to the federal Liberals, the new marijuana law before the
Commons does call for somewhat tougher maximum sentences for grow
operators -- as much as five years in jail for those caught with three
or more plants, 10 years for those 25 plants and 14 years for
operations with 50 plants.

Unfortunately, the legislation has more problems than solutions
beginning with a lack of minimum sentences for dealers and grow operators.

However, a bigger problem with the federal bill reintroduced last
November is the decriminalization of possession of 15 grams or less --
an offence that would be subject to a $150 fine (or $100 fine for
minors) rather than a criminal record.

This move has obviously displeased the police. "We don't solve
anything in society by legalizing things or by pretending they're not
harmful to society," Zaccardelli said at his press conference.

Evidently, federal Liberals feel otherwise.

Actually, the government's argument that it makes more sense to clamp
down on dealers and growers than those possessing a small amount of
pot for personal use does make some sense.

But the problem here is twofold. First, the courts and police have
already pretty much "de-criminalized" small possession by not
prosecuting such cases very often.

Second, anything that makes marijuana use more socially acceptable
(and, by the way, why do we want do that when we are trying to
"de-normalize" cigarettes?) runs the risk of increasing the
marketplace, thus creating more illegal and dangerous grow ops.

Naturally, some federal Liberals think they have a solution to that,
too. A resolution at their convention this weekend calls on the
government to completely legalize marijuana and tax it as a means of
controlling the drug traffic.

Yes, there are Liberals who seriously think the lucrative illegal
marijuana growing trade -- the entire $7-billion annual industry in
B.C. -- will fold up shop, register with the feds and gleefully fork
over hefty portions of their ill-gotten to the federal government in
the form of taxes. Apparently no thought was given to the notion that
such criminals would just go deeper underground to grow tax-free pot.

There again, these were the same people who once thought registering
your guns would stop murders. Perhaps they should also explain that to
the relatives of the four dead Mounties or the families of the three
people murdered in Montreal Lake.

Their new marijuana law has now become the one social agenda issue
that the Liberals are pushing too far. To continue to push it is to do
so at their own peril.