MARIJUANA LAWS SHOULD BE SCRAPPED

Cultural attitudes evolve slowly, but there is often a tipping point, the
moment when the struggle is won. The campaign to decriminalize marijuana may
have had its tipping point yesterday, when a judge in Windsor threw out a
possession charge against a teenager alleged to have had five grams of pot.

The youth's lawyer, citing a July 2000 decision of the Ontario Court of
Appeal in the Parker case, had argued there was no law against possessing
small amounts of marijuana. In that case, the appeal court agreed with an
epileptic, Terry Parker, who claimed that marijuana laws violated the rights
of sick people who use the drug for medical reasons. It declared the
marijuana possession section of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to
be invalid and gave legislators 12 months to amend the act.

The Chretien government didn't do this, choosing instead to introduce a
controversial set of regulations to deal with medical users of marijuana.
Meanwhile, the 12 months expired, allowing the Windsor teen to argue
successfully that there is no operative law against pot possession in
Canada.

The federal government could appeal the case or write up a new law, but that
would be ill-advised. As we have argued regularly, the criminalization of
marijuana is misguided, costing millions of dollars in judges, lawyers and
ineffective police efforts. Even the staid Senate concluded in September
that marijuana should be a "personal choice that is not subject to criminal
penalties."

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, who admits having used marijuana, supports
decriminalization. Meanwhile, the constitutionality of marijuana prohibition
is being challenged in the Supreme Court of Canada, though the court has
delayed hearing that case until the spring to allow Parliament to articulate
a more coherent position on the issue.

It's time the federal government stopped punishing people for choosing to
use pot. If it can't bring itself to legalize marijuana, which we support,
it should at least decriminalize it.