A WELCOME MOVE FROM PM ON POT

It would have been easy enough for Canada's new prime minister to back away
from the efforts of his predecessor to decriminalize marijuana possession.
Legislation to that effect died along with Jean Chretien's final session of
Parliament, and the Supreme Court has since upheld the constitutional
validity of the existing law that makes marijuana possession a criminal
offence.

But Paul Martin and his new justice minister, to their credit, have said
they plan to reintroduce the Chretien bill later this month, when
Parliament resumes. The bill would decriminalize possession of less than 15
grams of marijuana, meaning offenders would receive a fine but not a
criminal record.

While the legislation may be altered as it goes through the parliamentary
process, it is heartening to hear of the Martin government's intent to
reintroduce it without change.

The Supreme Court, in ruling last month that the existing criminal law on
marijuana possession does not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
stressed it was deciding a question of law, not policy. "It is open to
Parliament to decriminalize or otherwise modify any aspect of the marijuana
laws that it no longer considers to be good public policy," the court said.

While it is up to judges to interpret the law, it is the responsibility of
lawmakers to read and react to changing social norms that may render
existing legislation out of date.

A majority of Canadians (55 per cent) support decriminalization, according
to a Decima Research poll conducted just a few months ago. And forty per
cent of those surveyed supported legalizing the possession of marijuana.

Almost a decade earlier, in a 1994 survey, 42 per cent of respondents
supported decriminalization, with 27 per cent favouring legalization.

That is not to say a majority of Canadians condone smoking marijuana or are
oblivious to its health effects. But many people recognize its recreational
use causes minimal public harm, and its criminalization clogs the country's
court system unnecessarily.

That problem seems particularly acute here in Edmonton, where, in a
26-month period ending last October, police laid 890 charges for marijuana
possession.

That was almost one-quarter of the 4,000 charges laid across the country
during that same time -- all of which were recently stayed by the federal
government because of a legal loophole in medical marijuana legislation.

While local police claim the numbers are high because of this city's huge
drug problem, it is more likely because enforcement is tougher here than in
other jurisdictions like British Columbia, where a total of 717
pot-possession charges were laid in the entire province during the same period.

Statistics like these highlight another key problem of the status quo --
the existing law is enough at odds with public opinion that police don't
enforce it consistently across the country, making the application of the
law unfair.

And if it was strictly enforced everywhere, the courts would be overrun
with offenders. As it is, between 1965 and 1996, there were 700,000
criminal convictions for cannabis possession in Canada.

Local police have said some of the people they deal with are confused about
what is or isn't legal, and carry or use marijuana openly. And while
ignorance of the law is no defence for breaking it, surely it is an
indicator of how out of step the existing legislation is with public sentiment.

Smoking pot is not something we, as a society, want to actively encourage,
particularly among young people.

Any change in legislation should be accompanied by public health campaigns
much like the ones that target smoking tobacco. But saddling an
ever-increasing number of young people with criminal records that could
harm their job and travel prospects for the future seems unduly harsh.

Crimes like trafficking and cultivating marijuana will continue to carry,
and merit, criminal penalties, but simple possession does not. A majority
of Canadians recognize this. It would appear, happily, that the Martin
government does as well.