LEGALIZE POT, TRAVELLING COMMITTEE TOLD

The federal government should consider legalizing marijuana and
allowing limited use of other illegal drugs, say a couple of Maritime
university professors.

Legalizing pot should be given serious attention, William McKim of
Memorial University in Newfoundland told a Commons committee into the
non-medical use of drugs yesterday. Changing the legal status may in
fact be quite beneficial.

The committee is holding national hearings and will hear a second day
of testimony in Halifax today.

McKim also recommended easing patients access to other drugs,
including morphine and heroine, which have the same effect on the
brain as the over-the-counter-drug codeine.

Morphine has limited medical use, but McKim said both drugs can help
patients suffering painful deaths.

Theres a lack of rationale in our public policy when it comes to the
use of drugs, he said. In the last 30 years, there's been an
unbelievable increase in understanding what drugs are, what they do
and why people take them, (but) there's been virtually no change
whatsoever in public policy or legal statutes on any of these drugs.

Existing legislation, he said, is based on history and politics, not
knowledge of the drug.

McKim and fellow Memorial psychology professor Robert Adamec said
they support the movement toward harm reduction, which promotes
needle exchanges, safe shoot-up sites and methadone programs. The
intent is to reduce the harmful effects of drugs on both the user and
society.

Adamec said legalizing marijuana is a form of harm reduction.

Committee vice-chairman Randy White said that will be a hard sell for
the Canadian public.

A lot of parents aren't going to accept that, he said.