AMERICA'S POT POLITICS TOO PUNGENT FOR ME

I never thought I'd be moved to write a column defending Prime Minister Jean
Chretien, but who do the Americans think they are?

John Walters, director of the U.S. National Drug Control Policy Office, told
the Centre for Strategic and International Studies that Canada is going the
wrong direction in the war on drugs, and Canadians should feel "ashamed"
because the prime minister joked about using marijuana in his retirement
when it is no longer criminal. ("I will have money for my fine and a joint
in the other hand," Chretien told the Winnipeg Free Press.)

It's the Americans who should feel ashamed of their government's
hyper-aggressive drug enforcement policies, and its recurring role as
hemispheric bully. If Canada decides to put an end to the hypocritical laws
against pot, it would be a welcome change.

Osgoode Hall law professor and esteemed criminal lawyer, Alan Young, has
written a candid new book on the issue, entitled Justice Defiled: Perverts,
Potheads, Serial Killers and Lawyers. Of potheads, he argues the justice
system wastes a lot of money prosecuting these simple pleasure-seekers, even
though they pose no danger.

Young believes drug law is born of and maintained by hysteria, that all
drugs are harmless if used responsibly, that only a small percentage of drug
users will destroy their lives with drugs, and that the "Just Say No"
campaign is just plain stupid, because it treats drug use as a disease,
rather than a symptom of a deeper malaise.

He posits that drug wars are nothing more than moral crusades, and dangerous
and wasteful ones at that. Billions of law enforcement dollars are spent eve
ry year on wire taps, surveillance, undercover investigations, detection
equipment, raiding private homes and prosecutions. Moreover, the police
"constantly violate constitutional rights in pursuit of offenders," says
Young, "and some cops become corrupt in the process."

That's a lot scarier than a group of kids getting high in the basement,
eating Doritos and watching Pink Floyd's The Wall. I abhor the drug culture,
but I abhor state tyranny even more.

At least Canada is being honest about what it's trying to accomplish.
Canadians don't want to see their friends, family and neighbours saddled
with a criminal record for such trivial offences. Even the Canadian Alliance
seems to be onside with this one.

After a brief debate on Thursday, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon referred
his marijuana decriminalization bill to a committee. It's bound to be a slow
process, especially with the Americans hounding us at every step.

The real problem with Cauchon's bill is not that it's too liberal -- it's
not liberal enough. The legislation would decriminalize pot possession, with
fines of $100 to $400 instead of a criminal record, and the penalties for
importing, growing and distribution would become even more onerous.

This seems grossly out of step with the Hitzig v. Canada decision that came
down Tuesday from the Ontario Court of Appeal, which rewrote the Medical
Marijuana Access Regulations to bring them into compliance with the
Constitution. Previous court decisions had found the federal approach to
medical marijuana flawed. In essence, the government acknowledged patients'
rights to use marijuana for medical purposes, but the only source was the
black market.

Health Canada's ridiculous solution was to get into the grow-op business,
hiring a Saskatoon berry farmer to cultivate a crop in an abandoned Flin
Flon mine. The product yielded only a fraction of the THC content available
on the street. Cut with leaves and stems, it was utterly unusable.

The court had a much simpler solution. It struck down the provisions that
made it illegal for a patient to pay his designated grower for a supply of
pot, for a grower to supply more than one patient, and for growers to
combine their efforts so they could produce a dependable supply of the
drugs. This should clear the way for compassion clubs (which law enforcement
agencies have turned a blind eye to) to get licences to supply their sick
clients with marijuana legally.

The court's surgical approach to changing the regulations may have brought
federal law in line with the Constitution, but it didn't strike down
Canada's possession laws for recreational users. So, after five months of
freedom -- and chaos has not broken out in Ontario in the meantime, despite
the previous ruling -- pot users face criminal charges once again, unless
Parliament decides otherwise.

It would be incongruous to ease restrictions on medical marijuana grow-ops
and distribution, then take a hard-line approach on recreational use.
Canadians have a right to expect parliamentarians to at least strive for
consistency and reasonableness. MPs can start by telling the White House
drug czar to keep his nose on his own side of the border.