LEGALIZE POT

Like most Canadians, we supported Ottawa's recent move to
decriminalize marijuana. Pot is less dangerous and addictive than
either alcohol or tobacco, and the war against marijuana ruins more
lives, and costs more, than the drug itself. In fact, recent
developments suggest decriminalization isn't enough: Outright
legalization may be in order.

In January, an Ontario judge ruled that Ottawa needed to do more to
put marijuana into the hands of sick patients who use the drug for
therapeutic purposes. Health Canada had started granting permission to
a few hundred Canadians to grow their own pot, or arrange for another
person to grow it for them. But the court found this inadequate:
Growing marijuana is difficult, and is often beyond the means of sick
individuals or their caregivers. Moreover, because there is no legal
retail marijuana source in Canada, participants in the program looking
to buy marijuana plants had to turn to the black market.

Two weeks ago, an Ontario appellate court dismissed an attempt by
Health Canada to have the January ruling reversed. This decision means
the government must begin distributing the marijuana its own
researchers have grown in an abandoned Manitoba mine. Ottawa finds
itself in the strange position of being a de facto pot dealer.

This status quo cannot last. Therapeutic marijuana is used to palliate
a range of conditions, including glaucoma, epilepsy and the severe
nausea associated with chemotherapy and AIDS wasting syndrome. Users
typically report different results from different varieties of
marijuana, so it is doubtful whether the government's crop will be
suitable for all. Marijuana is a chemically complex substance and only
a free-market solution can supply therapeutic users with the variety
and quality they seek.

Second, it seems wrong as a matter of economics for the federal
government to be a drug industry monopolist - just as it is wrong for
provincial governments in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and
elsewhere to be booze industry monopolists. When the state gets
involved in the sale of state-regulated substances, inefficiencies and
conflicts of interest inevitably abound. In the long run, it makes
more sense for pot to be treated like tobacco or prescription drugs -
regulated, but not sold by, the government.

When the medicinal marijuana movement gained traction and legitimacy
in the late '90s, legalization opponents predicted it was the thin
edge of the wedge, and that legalization of the drug for recreational
purposes would soon follow. They were right - for two reasons. First,
the issue of therapeutic marijuana has created a sense of urgency in
regard to drug reform: It is inhumane to deprive AIDS and cancer
sufferers of an effective means of pain relief for a day longer than
necessary. Second, by bringing a sympathetic, politically active class
of marijuana smokers into the public spotlight, therapeutic marijuana
has helped debunk the image of pot users as Cheech-and-Chong-style
stoners.

The result is that public acceptance of marijuana is increasing and
even decriminalization now appears inadequate as a reform measure.
Hopefully, this change in attitude will soon translate into political
action. We look forward to the day when pot decriminalization gives
way to pot legalization.