I WAS A TEENAGE ABSTAINER

I'm 39-years old," [Martin Cauchon] told reporters. "Yes, of course I tried
it ..."

The Justice Minister joined a list of several other Canadian politicians
who have already admitted they have tried marijuana, including Ralph Klein,
the Alberta Premier, and former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day."

In recent days there has been much discussion of whether marijuana -- hash,
weed, grass, pot, maryjane, bhang, ganja, call it what you will -- should
be decriminalized. This has given rise to speculation over whether this or
that well-known public figure has or has not used the drug.

In the interests of full disclosure, and in answer to persistent rumours, I
feel compelled at this time to make a frank admission. This isn't easy, but
here goes: Years ago, as a graduate student, like many young people of my
generation, I experimented without marijuana.

I refrained from using pot any chance I could: morning, noon and night.
Sometimes it was in my dorm room. As often as not it was in the cafeteria.
I even avoided using it in class. And not only there. My career of drug
non-use began sometime before college, and I have lived with it to this
day. Although in my own defence, I can truthfully say I never inhaled.

To young people who ask me, how could you, I can only plead: It was the
1980s. There was a lot of that going on. It was the age after the age of
Aquarius, a time when people were experimenting with things like
monetarism, mortgages and a Flock of Seagulls. It was the Summer of Tainted
Love, when young people were advised to "tune in, turn old, drop off." Like
they say, if you can remember the Eighties, you probably were there.
Personally, I felt not using pot improved my mental capacity in many ways.
I know it got me through exams.

But that was then. What was right for me, at that time, is not necessarily
what is right for young people today. Sure I was rebelling: Who doesn't in
their college years? But out in the "real world," these choices are not
always available to us. Imagine you are at a party with co-workers, and you
suddenly refuse to light up a spliff. More than a socially awkward moment,
this could seriously harm your career.

The politician, in particular, who confesses to having not tried marijuana
invites all sorts of doubts. People will question his ability to set a
credible example for today's youth. I mean, what kind of loser would never
have had even one toke? If he's been covering this up all this time, they
will ask, how do we know we can trust him now? It's not just about
marijuana, after all. People will want to know what other drugs he hasn't
used. Cocaine? Ecstasy? Alcohol? Who wants a killjoy like that for a leader?

Apart from the known health effects -- loss of appetite, increased
motivation, inability to concentrate on a single spot for more than two
hours at a time -- police believe that not using marijuana can be a
"gateway" to not using other drugs. Some may scoff, but I can tell you it
has been my experience. It starts with a little "no, thank you." Pretty
soon you're doing homework, running track, still kidding yourself that you
can quit any time. Before you know it, you've joined the chess club.

No one ever told me about the costs of chronic non-use. It isn't just the
legal risks: the chance that you will be involved in an accident, say,
because you were foolish enough to get behind the wheel while "low."
There's also the financial toll. People who are not on drugs will spend any
amount of money -- on vacations, expensive meals, recreational vehicles --
trying to produce the same fleeting sensation of well-being that could be
had for a dime-bag of dope.

But what can today's impressionable young person do? Where can he turn?
Everywhere he is bombarded with messages urging him not to do drugs,
telling him that staying clean is "cool," that it will win him friends and
get him a good job. Popular culture is full of coded anti-drug references,
as in the famous "children's" song, Puff the Listless Dragon. There are
even religions that eschew the cannabis leaf as part of their sacred rites.

But what about the medicinal non-use of marijuana? There may be room here
for some exceptions. It is possible that patients suffering from advanced
stages of emphysema, for instance, may benefit from not smoking pot, among
other substances. But this could all too easily be used as a pretext by
other non-users: "No thanks, man, I've got a bad chest-cold. Like, I'd be
totally baked by now if it weren't for that. I swear."

Some will accuse me of hypocrisy: a case, perhaps, of do as I say, not as I
don't. I prefer to think of this as a cautionary tale. Having, by my own
admission, no history of drug use, I am in a position to warn others by my
example. And to think if I'd smoked enough pot I might have been Justice
Minister.