CABINET'S POT PURITAN

As Canada's health minister, Anne McLellan wasn't shy about expressing
her discomfort with the federal government's sensible marijuana
reforms. At the time, Ms. McLellan's main concern -- expressed to this
editorial board in a meeting last year -- was that Ottawa had moved
too quickly in approving the use of the drug for medicinal purposes.
She lost that battle. And now that the government seems set to proceed
with its sensible plan to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana,
she seems set to lose another. But apparently, Ms. McLellan -- now
serving as Public Safety Minister and Deputy Prime Minister -- isn't
prepared to relinquish her role as Cabinet's self-appointed pot puritan.

Speaking on Tuesday to an RCMP conference, Ms. McLellan reiterated the
federal government's commitment to eliminating marijuana grow
operations. That in itself is certainly defensible: Whatever one
thinks of drug reform, large-scale grow-ops are typically run by
criminal gangs, and the profits are often recycled into smuggling
operations and guns. But Ms. McLellan's description of grow-ops as
"one of the single biggest problems we face in our communities" is an
overstatement. Moreover, her categorization of those who smoke
marijuana as "stupid" suggests an anti-pot zeal that goes well beyond
any ambition to crack down on organized crime: Marijuana harms far
fewer people than either alcohol or tobacco -- but we have yet to hear
Ms. McLellan impugn the intelligence of the tens of millions of
Canadians who partake in those substances.

Surely, one of the federal government's most powerful ministers -- the
one charged with, among other things, leading the fight against
terrorist organizations operating in our midst -- has better ways to
occupy her time. Yes, police deserve the federal government's support
in cracking down on grow-ops. But Ms. McLellan's ambition to carry on
the good fight against a relatively harmless drug that her government
is in the midst of decriminalizing suggests skewed priorities.