CANNABIS BILL FORCES POLICE TO MAKE LAW

CALGARY -- Police officers, not the government, will decide if possession
of marijuana is a criminal offence in Canada if the Liberals' proposed
decriminalization bill is passed by Parliament, according to an Ontario law
professor.

Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Hall, said with Bill C-38 the
government is passing the buck to unelected beat officers, rather than
dealing with the matter itself.

"This government has to make a decision, and they're trying to defer it to
law enforcement officials -- and I think that is really a big mistake,"
said Mr. Young during a panel discussion on the current affairs show Global
Sunday, which will air today on Global TV.

The legislation proposes decriminalizing the possession of 15 grams or less
of marijuana. Police who catch people with small amounts of the drug would
have the discretion to hand them tickets -- from $100 to $400 -- instead of
initiating criminal charges.

Currently, possession of any amount of marijuana carries a maximum penalty
of six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Mr. Young believes too much time and money have already been wasted trying
to keep marijuana possession criminal when the substance has been found by
several commissions of inquiry, including one recently from the Senate, to
be "a relatively benign substance."

However, Dan McTeague, a Liberal MP who has doubts about his own
government's bill, told Global Sunday host Danielle Smith decriminalization
would, for many, be confused with legalization. That could lead more people
to drive under the influence of marijuana, he said.

Debates around the bill may be moot, however, as Parliament may not have
enough time to debate it before its current sitting ends.

Also interviewed during the program was Alison Myrden, a woman who suffers
from chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and associated facial pain. To
douse the agony, Ms. Myrden told Ms. Smith she consumes marijuana around
the clock in any way she can, by eating, smoking it and putting it in her
tea. She claims smoking it, however, is the fastest way to get rid of the
pain she's suffered for more than a decade.

"I'm only better because of things like medicinal marijuana," said Ms.
Myrden, who backs the government's bill. "I'm dealing with the worst pain
in the world."