DON'T DECRIMINALIZE POT UNTIL WE GET MORE FACTS

Most Canadians seem alarmed about the burgeoning drug culture that is
consuming our youth. Unfortunately, we can't seem to agree on how to
conquer this problem and the plethora of others that are associated with it.

Last week, Canada's doctors muddied the waters even more by presenting a
brief to the Senate committee on illegal drugs, calling for the
decriminalization of personal marijuana possession and use. (It's going to
be tough for parents to maintain a hard line against marijuana use if the
doctor says it isn't a problem.)

What is most interesting is that the Canadian Medical Association (CMA)
wants decriminalization done in a way that 1) acknowledges that "cannabis
is an addictive substance and that addiction is a disease," 2) doesn't
"promote normalization of its use," and 3) is "tied to a national drug
strategy" of awareness, prevention and treatment.

But how can we smoke an addictive substance with impunity, yet not have it
become an addiction or even habitual? And why should the government
decriminalize pot, only to turn around and pay hundreds of millions of
dollars to prevent its use?

What will we have gained?

It is clear that the CMA wants more money for drug programs and treatments
- - and I don't have a problem with that. But it somehow thinks that all the
spare change that will magically appear by moving marijuana out of the
legal system will be available for such purposes.

That's the red herring - there won't be any more money. The legal system
will still need money to battle drug sales and distributors. The only thing
that will change under decriminalization is that the health-care system wil
also need a lot of extra money.

The New England Journal of Medicine and a University of California research
say smoking five joints a week is the equivalent of smoking a pack of
cigarettes per day.

Anti-smoking lobbyists can do the calculations on how much that will cost
our already overburdened health-care system.

A study in "Neurotoxicity & Teratology" shows that children exposed to
marijuana in the womb are more likely to be hyperactive and have other
social problems. The National Academy of Sciences says that smoking
marijuana can cause cancer, lung damage and babies with low birth weights.
"Circulation" recently reported a fivefold increase in heart-attack risk
for middle-aged pot smokers.

So the debate over the medical consequences of pot smoking is far from
over. In fact, it's likely just begun.

Maybe the decriminalization of marijuana wouldn't lead to a massive
increase in addictions or any of the above health problems. But maybe it
would.

The bottom line is - we just don't know. And from looking at the above
statistics, it seems that it is our young people who will be most at risk
if we were to change our drug policies.

Teens are more likely to experiment; to get hooked; to experience the
long-term impact. In fact, when Alaska flirted with the legalization of
pot, marijuana and cocaine use among adolescents rose to double that of any
other state.

If the doctors want to treat drug use as a medical matter, that's fine. But
the best treatment is still prevention. And in this case, that means pot
stays illegal.