EASING POT LAW RISKY: TEEN

Josh was 12 when he began smoking marijuana. Within six years the
Chilliwack teen's life was a chaotic mess of drug addiction, family
upheaval and violence.

Now 19 and a recovering addict, Josh believes reducing the penalties for
marijuana possession could lead young people to believe that the drug is
harmless.

"I think kids are going to think that marijuana won't lead to problems,
that there are no serious implications," said Josh, who requested that his
last name be withheld. "But if they use marijuana, they will be exposed to
other drugs because they will be involved in the drug scene."

Yesterday, a federal parliamentary committee recommended that possessing
small amounts of marijuana be treated as a less serious offence.

The committee suggested that people caught with up to 30 grams of the drug
be fined rather than face criminal conviction.

Liberal MP Paddy Torsney, chairman of the special parliamentary committee
on the non-medicinal use of drugs, said: "Smoking any amount of marijuana
is unhealthy, but the consequences of conviction for a small amount of
marijuana for personal use are disproportionate to the potential harm."

The report got a favourable response from Justice Minister Martin Cauchon,
who has promised to ease marijuana possession laws early in the new year.

"What we're talking about is decriminalization," Cauchon said. "We're not
talking about to legalize."

But Josh said relaxing the penalties for marijuana possession could
encourage kids to try it.

In Josh's case, experimenting with marijuana at 12 led him to try
amphetamines and cocaine at 15. By the time he was 16, his drug addiction
was out of control.

"Kids start using things and they don't know what it's going to do to them
- -- they don't realize the long-term effects," he said.

Canadian police and the U.S. drug control czar said easing the penalties is
a step in the wrong direction.

"The message this sends to our youth is that we are trivializing the use of
marijuana," said Mike Niebudek, vice-president of the Canadian Police
Association.

John Walters, director of the U.S. office of drug control policy, warned
that softer drug policies in Canada could create border security problems
and contribute to an increased flow of Canadian-grown pot to the U.S. market.

Vancouver East New Democrat MP Libby Davies, a member of the Commons
committee, said decriminalizing pot doesn't go far enough: "These
recommendations need a great deal of work if we are serious about removing
the intrusive power of police when it comes to personal use of cannabis."