LET'S DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA AS AN INTERIM STEP TO SANER LAW

Public health care, balanced budgets and gay rights were all
controversial ideas when they were first proposed. Over time, they've
been accepted within mainstream society.

These attitudes evolved because each of these concepts had credible
champions. And now the long-awaited Senate committee report will, we
hope, become that kind of voice for marijuana legalization in Canada.

The Senate report, released this week, says pot should be legalized,
regulated, taxed and sold to anyone over the age of 16. The end game
contemplated by the senators isn't likely to materialize any time
soon, but at least this report has the benefit of being a clear policy
statement.

We can't, unfortunately, say the same thing about the Liberal
government's pronouncements on marijuana. Ottawa has, to put it
charitably, been fumbling around. Specifically, it has yet to come up
with a clear statement on pot decriminalization or to allow those
Canadians who need marijuana to ease the pain of some medical
conditions to get it easily without breaking the law.

Just last year, Ottawa decided to hire a grower in Manitoba so
marijuana could be available legally for those who need it for medical
reasons. But this August, Health Minister Anne McLellan shut down that
government-sponsored pot growing operation.

Earlier, in April, the Liberals killed a private member's bill on
decriminalization put forward by Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith
Martin. Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, who in February was making
some noise about decriminalizing simple possession, backed off last
month. Now, he says, decriminalization "probably would be feasible as
a first step."

Well, which is it?

Although a lot questions still need to be answered, the senators,
unlike the government, at least have come up with a policy that's
consistent and defensible. Without a clear road map of their own,
cabinet should pay attention to this well-researched 600-page report
from the Senate.

As Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, the co-chair of the committee notes,
"Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is
substantially less harmful than alcohol and should not be treated as a
criminal issue but a social and public health issue." He's right.

His being right hasn't stopped the critics from jumping all over the
report. David Griffin, the executive officer of the Canadian Police
Association, called it "nothing more than a back-to-school gift for
drug pushers." What Mr. Griffin and other critics fail to realize is,
pot, like cigarettes and alcohol, is an adult vice that an estimated
two million Canadians indulged in last year.

As the senators point out, while many of us may wish for a drug-free,
smoke-free and alcohol-free world, that's not realistic. And we
shouldn't criminalize these things -- rather, treat them for what they
are, social and health issues.

That said, as we have stated in the past, there are still a lot of
questions we will need answers to before we get to where the Senate
wants us to go.

How will we create an effective regulatory regime to grow and
manufacture pot? How will it be distributed? How will we determine the
safe level of blood THC for driving? And very importantly, can we
legalize a drug that the United States is so firmly committed to
eradicating south of the border?

These are difficult issues that need to be worked out. If we can do
that for alcohol and cigarettes, there's no reason we can't do it for
marijuana.

This Senate report sets the stage for a debate on how, not whether, to
legalize marijuana. That's progress. Now is the time for that
thoughtful debate this newspaper has been urging for quite a while.

In the meantime, Ottawa should stop vilifying pot and making criminals
out of otherwise law-abiding citizens. It should allow people to grow
a small amounts for their own consumption. And it should take the
Senate's advise and provide an amnesty to the more than 600,000 people
who have been convicted of marijuana possession.

In practical political terms, despite good arguments from the Senate,
we'll have to wait for full legalization. But we need not wait any
longer for the interim step of decriminalization.