NO EASY ANSWER ON MARIJUANA

Don't hold your breath! The chances that a trip across Canada by a Senate
committee will bring closure to the endless marijuana debate are probably
about zero, especially with the United States in its current, extremely
sensitive mood both about drugs and about a porous Canadian border.

Nevertheless, the effort will give new credibility and prominence to a
subject that truly needs to be resolved.

For 40 years, Canadians have been told by advocates that the association of
cannabis with hard drugs is illogical, and as such an unnecessary burden on
the legal system and on otherwise law-abiding citizens. Now we have the
chairman of a parliamentary committee, Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin, saying
that "scientific evidence seems to indicate that cannabis is not a gateway
drug. It may be appropriate to treat it more like alcohol or tobacco than
like the harder drugs."

Of course, science isn't really the issue. Rather, it is public opinion,
which is why the committee's six-city mission focuses on getting feedback
on its preliminary findings.

Furthermore, the familiar comparison with tobacco and alcohol is based on
the illogical premise that those drugs would readily win legalization if
society were in a position to make the choice again.

Proven problems are associated with tobacco and alcohol, and without
question wider, less secretive use of marijuana would add to that list. As
the committee notes, cannabis may not be heroin or cocaine, but it is a
"psycho-active substance" that it is "better not to use."

The question is whether the damage to society of the current illegality --
in disrespect to the law, and law enforcement, to name but two issues -- is
worse than the likely consequence of wider drug use. The Nolin committee's
work, which includes a report to be found at
www/parl.gc.ca/illegal-drugs.asp, contributes to progress toward an answer.