SENATE ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE ON LEGALIZING POT

Who would've thought five coddled senators, average age 64.4 years, could
step one toke over the line in their rush to open up a legal marijuana
market. What are those guys smoking?

Not content to cope with dope by merely decriminalizing the stuff, giving
simple possession all the legal consequences of a jaywalking ticket, they
announced with great fanfare Wednesday a desire to legalize, fertilize,
organize and franchise the multibillion-dollar cannabis industry into a
lucrative, taxable product line.

Unfortunately, the committee's refusal to adopt a doable halfway measure
means the chamber of stoner second thought is now likely to have its
627-page, four-volume opus filed on a shelf under Dust.

The difference between this committee and the 1,148-page Le Dain Commission
released in 1974, which basically arrived at the same conclusions and thus
gives the Senate report a sense of time standing still, is having it
released to a generation now ready to accept decriminalization as
government policy.

The problem is that they went too far, ignoring the fact that parliamentary
progress is measured in baby steps and leapfrogging to a harder-to-swallow
place where B.C. bud would be displayed on a store rack beside Budweiser beer.

They've got a point, though. What's the point of declaring possession of a
controlled substance a misdemeanor while production and distribution remain
illegal?

But then there's the traditional effect of mixing legal grass with Canadian
politics to consider -- it triggers a disorienting view of political
reality where everything slows waaaaaay down.

Three decades after Le Dain, Canadians are still going to pot in roughly
the same numbers at the same age and buying it at prices that haven't
increased much beyond inflation.

The only big change are the billions of police dollars swallowed up to turn
21,000 kids into criminals every year, money put to better use tracking
down real thugs with the potential to harm others instead of inflicting
short-term memory loss on the user.

Clearly the system ain't fixing the problem, so it must be broke. But
timing is everything in politics and progress on marijuana reform is a
go-slow or no-go proposition.

That much was reflected in the Canadian Police Association response to the
commission, a fine bit of blinkered detective work not exactly giving
Canadians the straight dope, in my view.

They were "appalled" by the conclusions, decrying it as a "back-to-school
gift for drug pushers" from senators falling to the "seductive temptations
of the drug lobby" and acting out of "self-interest." Gosh. Talk about
charges that won't stick.

They went on to reject all sorts of prevailing scientific wisdom by
insisting cannabis is a kickstart toward harder drugs, a stimulant for
violence and a friend to organized crime. Strange, then, how in the next
breath police admit they strive mightily to let anyone off when they're
caught for simple pot possession.

There's a good chance the cop won't make the bust or the Crown will decline
to lay a charge or the judge will refuse to convict, they argue. That's
hardly a sign the judicial system considers grass a serious threat to
peace, order and good government.

I'll spare some sympathy for the police argument that legal dope will
scramble the signals aimed at our young people. It's difficult to deter
kids from a drug while making it even more publicly acceptable.

But the Senate committee makes a compelling case that marijuana is
generally safer than booze or tobacco when used in modest amounts. They
even suggest a gently stoned driver is a safer driver, prone to easing off
the accelerator and keeping a long distance from the car ahead. (This is a
fact. My first speeding ticket was for going too slow on the 401 while
experiencing a mild buzz as a 17-year-old occasional pothead. But I digress.)

The committee's bottom line is hard to dispute: Government is "throwing
taxpayers' money down the drain on a crusade that is not warranted by the
danger posed by the substance."

Three decades of enforcement have failed to stop or even slow the amount of
cannabis going up in smoke.

We've had enough of watching grass grow into criminal records for kids. The
time to decriminalize has arrived.

But legalization and having McPot outlets sitting across from high schools
is a concept for the next generation to sell.