SMOKING POT SHOULD NOT BE A CRIME

This Thursday, the House of Commons committee on illegal drugs will issue
its long awaited report. The old good news is that the committee members
will likely recommend the decriminalization of marijuana possession. The
new good news is that those recommendations might then quickly become law:
On Monday, federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon told reporters the
government could "move ahead quickly" on pot decriminalization once the
committee delivers its expected verdict.

Of course, no one worth listening to thinks recreational marijuana use is
something to be encouraged: It damages the lungs and dulls the mind. But
pot is neither addictive nor criminogenic, nor acutely toxic. Indeed, it is
less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco. Given this, a majority of
Canadians have sensibly concluded that it is foolish to treat the substance
the way we do such pure killers as heroin and cocaine. In fact, the
possibility of decriminalization no longer seems controversial. Just three
months ago, the Senate's Special Committee on Illegal Drugs went farther
than is expected of its Commons counterpart, and concluded the government
should make smoking pot completely legal. (Under a decriminalized regime,
by contrast, pot smokers would still, technically, be lawbreakers -- and
might be required to pay small fines).

Several factors have contributed to the popular attitude shift on pot. One
was the rise of AIDS and the medical marijuana movement. Across North
America, thousands of HIV-infected patients use marijuana daily to help
suppress the violent nausea that accompanies AIDS wasting syndrome. Cancer
and Crohn's disease sufferers use pot for the same purpose. In many medical
circles, access to marijuana is now construed as a humanitarian issue. Even
south of the border, where the war on drugs is an article of faith among
politicians, medical marijuana initiatives have passed in several states.

A second factor is the mounting evidence that some of the fears surrounding
marijuana are unjustified. The Office of National Drug Control Policy in
the United States, the world's most influential booster of the war-on-drugs
status quo, has long claimed that marijuana is a "gateway" drug that leads
users to cocaine and heroin. But recent studies -- including a thorough
RAND corporation analysis published in this month's issue of the journal
Addiction -- cast doubt on this theory. While marijuana use correlates
strongly to hard-drug use, there is nothing in the data that shows the
former causes the latter. The stronger hypothesis is that the same genetic
and environmental factors that cause people to use marijuana and tobacco
(and overuse alcohol) also lead them to hard drugs.

Pot decriminalization has long been seen as a liberal cause: Left-wingers
have traditionally opposed government efforts to outlaw good times. But
conservatives should get on the bandwagon as well. Our marijuana laws
represent an entirely unjustified government intrusion into citizens'
lives. About 20,000 people are arrested annually on marijuana-related
charges. The investigation, arrest, trial and punishment of this small army
represents a massive, unjustifiable waste of our tax dollars.