WHITHER POT REFORM?

A few days after he took over the Prime Minister's office last
December, Paul Martin pledged to move forward with his predecessor's
laudable initiative to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana for
personal use. Rightly arguing that it achieves "absolutely nothing to
give a criminal record to young people caught with minimal amounts,"
Mr. Martin indicated that the legislation first proposed under Jean
Chretien would soon be reintroduced.

To the Prime Minister's credit, it was. In fact, despite Mr. Martin
having previously indicated that he would prefer to reduce the amount
that would be criminalized from the proposed 15 grams, the legislation
was reintroduced unchanged in February. At the time, it was widely
believed that the bill would be passed in relatively short order.

That was then. Three months later, the legislation -- more or less
ignored by the Liberals since they reintroduced it -- is set to die on
the order paper. With Parliament rising for a spring election, it will
once again be off the table.

This is not an accident. Despite their claims that Conservative
stalling tactics are to blame, the Liberals could easily have used
their majority to fast-track the legislation -- especially since it
had already been debated while Mr. Chretien was prime minister.
Instead, Mr. Martin's government has taken another course. It has
sought to straddle the fence on the issue -- offering tepid support
for decriminalization, while appeasing critics by holding off on
actually doing anything about it -- long enough to avert controversy
on the campaign trail. This choice of politics over principle is
disappointing, to say the least.

As we have made clear on several previous occasions, we don't see the
point in continuing to waste police resources and in saddling tens of
thousands of Canadians each year with criminal records to crack down
on a substance that is less addictive than alcohol or tobacco; as a
result, we favour decriminalization as a step toward
legalization.

If Mr. Martin were to oppose decriminalization outright, rather than
pretending to support it while simultaneously undermining it, it would
at least be easier to respect his position. As with gay marriage,
another hot potato that he clearly wants no part of, the Prime
Minister has done neither himself nor the country any service by
refusing to stand up for whatever it is that he believes in.