CRIMINAL RECORDS, JAIL, NO WAY TO TRIM, MARIJUANA USE

Recently, much frenzied public debate has revolved around whether or not to
decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. The instigating
event was public musings by the Minister of Justice, Martin Cauchon, that
he would treat possession like a traffic ticket. This is a significant
departure for the minister who a few months ago ardently opposed my private
member's bill that would do the same thing.

Well, times have changed and the minister's new views are quite consistent
with those of most Canadians. Seventy-five per cent of us would like to see
marijuana possession, at the very least, decriminalized. Only 20 per cent
want to maintain prohibition.

It is important to note that legalization means you are free to do what you
want, but decriminalization means there is still a penalty associated with
possession although not necessarily a criminal offence.

Decriminalization makes sense at a number of levels. Firstly, most people
apprehended for possession are between the ages of 18 and 24. If
prosecuted, as thousands are each year, they receive a criminal record that
impairs their ability to gain employment, access to professional faculties,
travel etc.

Today, more than 500,000 Canadians have a criminal record for marijuana
possession. Secondly, it costs the taxpayers more than $160 million a year
to enforce this law which is not applied equally across the country. This
money could be better spent going after the real criminals, who are the
organized crime gangs that operate commercial grow operations and
parisitize off the foibles of others.

Decriminalization, however, should not be done in isolation.

We must also:

* Adopt new treatment models which focus on treatment, work, skills
training and getting a person out of their drug environment;

* Initiate, with the provinces, a National Headstart Program for children
that focuses on ensuring that children have their basic needs met and
strengthens the parent-child bond;

* Adopt organized amendments that enable the police to apprehend
individuals associated with organized crime who benefit from the proceeds.
The Courts also need to apply tougher penalties against these individuals.
They are often treated with too much leniency;

* Remove the barriers to trade for countries such as Colombia so that
farmers will produce something other than cocaine and heroin.

In Colombia, 26,000 people a year are murdered as a direct result of the
drug war. The vast majority of these people are innocent civilians. This
carnage is now spilling into Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru.

Furthermore, growing cocaine and heroin in Colombia is causing massive
environmental damage to the Amazon rainforest. Essentially, the river and
its basin are being poisoned by the chemicals associated with drug
production. The only way mass murder in Colombia is going to stop is if we,
in North Ameriea, reduce consumption. Drug production will never stop as
long as there is a significant demand.

In the end, marijuana is harmful, but so are alcohol and cigarettes.
Marijuana does impede peoples' ability to learn, and like tobacco, has
cancer-causing agents. Yes, some people are still going to toke up but the
key to restricting the number of people who use pot and other harmful
agents is through treatment, education and prevention, not incarceration.

Keith Martin is Canadian Alliance MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.