U.S. WARNS POT PLAN TO CLOG BORDER

Drug czar accuses Liberals of naive 'Cheech and Chong' notion of dangers of
marijuana

Bill Curry, with files from Carl Hanlon, Global National National Post,
with files from Global National

OTTAWA - U.S. drug czar John Walters warned yesterday that Canadians could
face problems at the border if Ottawa proceeds with the decriminalization
of marijuana.

Mr. Walters travelled to the Canada-U.S. border at Buffalo to deliver his
message on the same day a Commons committee called for the possession and
cultivation of less than 30 grams of marijuana to be decriminalized.

Mr. Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said RCMP officials recently told him that 95% of all
marijuana grown in Vancouver is sent to the United States.

"The RCMP informed me that many of the organizations, some of them
ethnically based, Vietnamese organizations and others, that are doing the
grows in British Columbia are now moving groups across Canada to Ontario
and Quebec to begin to supply larger parts of the United States," he said.

"It's bad for people in Canada and the consumption and dependence problems
it creates, but also, their estimates are the bulk of that marijuana is
headed for the United States and it's large quantity, high-potency and it
builds on the threat that we now believe we have underestimated and we're
trying to address.

"It makes security at the border tougher because this is a dangerous threat
to our young people given what we see and it makes the problem of
controlling the border more difficult," he said.

Mr. Walters dismissed claims marijuana is not addictive or a serious drug,
saying the level of psychoactive THC is much higher than it used to be.
"That's archaic views of what marijuana was, left over from the Cheech and
Chong years of the '70s," he said, cautioning against "reefer-madness madness."

Even as Mr. Walters was warning of trouble at the border, news emerged of
co-operation on security issues. Global National reported last night that
the two countries are close to signing an agreement that would enable
police in each country to instantly access criminal records of the other
country's citizens using cutting-edge fingerprint-scanning technology.

In Ottawa, Wayne Easter, the Solicitor-General, responded to Mr. Walters'
speech by stating that Canada is free to make its own laws.

Mr. Easter said he will raise the issue when he meets with John Ashcroft,
the U.S. Attorney-General, next week. "[Mr. Walters] is entitled to his
opinion. We make our laws in this country based on the decisions and the
debates in the House of Commons. Laws change as time goes on," Mr. Easter said.

On the fingerprint front, the Global National report cited senior
government officials in Ottawa and Washington who confirmed that Mr. Easter
would discuss fingerprint sharing with Mr. Ashcroft during a meeting of the
countries' top lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday. The report said a deal
to swap criminal records could be signed at that time.

The "live-scan" technology allows law enforcement officers to obtain
fingerprints via an electronic scanner. The information can then be
instantly cross-referenced against criminal-records databases.

The technology is in use at a number of U.S. border crossings, but the new
agreement would give officials the option of effectively merging the two
countries' criminal databases, allowing law-enforcement officers to access
records in either country. "It really is just going to check against
whatever database the two countries decide to check against, it will pop up
on the screen," said Linda Howard of Identix Inc., a U.S.-based maker of
identification-scanning systems. "You do it on a computer and it is in a
digital mode."

Canadian and U.S. police forces already share criminal-record information,
but the exchange of data occurs only after requests have been filed with
the appropriate authorities -- a process that usually takes a number of days.

The initiative is the latest effort to integrate security forces between
the neighbouring countries amid global terrorism fears. Washington is
moving ahead with plans for its National Security Entry-Exit Registration
System, a program that will require travellers to the United States to
register at the border.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is required to establish
the entry/exit system by the end of next year at all airports and seaports.
The 50 largest land points of entry are to be included a year later and by
2005, the system is supposed to cover all 162 official land crossings.

The project came under fire when it was announced that certain visitors --
those born in select Middle East countries -- would be fingerprinted and
photographed at the border, even those with Canadian citizenship. Officials
in Washington backed down from that requirement, but said the program will
proceed on schedule.

The countries developed a 30-point action plan following the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks intended to ensure continued freedom of travel and
transport while enhancing security. That plan included provisions ranging
from issuing permanent resident cards to all new immigrants to Canada and
enhancing visa policy co-ordination between the two countries to speeding
commercial shipments and sharing information on terrorist assets.

Yesterday's report from the Commons committee on non-medical use of drugs
says cannabis should continue to be illegal, but possession of less than 30
grams should be punished with fines instead of criminal charges.

Paddy Torsney, the Ontario Liberal MP who chaired the committee, said they
also call for decriminalization of small levels of cultivation to reduce
users' dependence on organized crime.

"We would prefer you have your one plant if you're a Saturday night smoker."

Meanwhile, Supreme Court of Canada judges have written a letter questioning
whether they should proceed with a federal case against pot smoking today,
given that Martin Cauchon, the Justice Minister, says he plans to
decriminalize marijuana. Three pot smokers, two from B.C. and one from
Ontario, are challenging the government on constitutional grounds.