YOUNG LIBERALS PLAN DEBATE ON POT

The legalizing of marijuana will be debated this weekend at the annual
convention of the Quebec Liberal Party's youth wing.

"We have a lot of questions," Isabelle Merizzi, president of the Liberal
youth wing, told reporters yesterday. "I hope we get answers."

Merizzi noted that legalization of marijuana was proposed last year as
well, but was not debated. This year party members from Pointe-aux-

Trembles, an east-end Montreal riding, have raised the issue once more and
have also proposed legalizing prostitution.

The resolution on prostitution, which is less likely to be debated, calls
for allowing the sex trade in designated brothels, while cracking down more
severely on street prostitution.

"We will invite the young people from Pointe-aux-Trembles to explain their
position," Merizzi said, referring to the marijuana resolution. "I have
many, many questions."

Merizzi would not state her position on the legalization issue, but did
note that the Bloc Pot, a fringe party favouring decriminalizing marijuana,
has attracted interest among young voters.

The Pointe-aux-Trembles resolution calls for decriminalizing cannabis
solely for use in private places by people 18 years and older.

Potential Tax Source

It notes that keeping drugs illegal leads to "dangerous problems of
criminality" and suggests that government control of sales and production
would increase the quality of marijuana sold, while boosting government tax
revenues.

The resolution also argues that while tobacco is legal, it is "much more
dangerous to health than marijuana," which has therapeutic value.

In a recent poll conducted by Leger Marketing, close to 53 per cent of
Quebecers said they favour legalization of marijuana.

Marijuana is already available in Canada as a prescription pain-reliever in
cases where conventional alternatives are ineffective, and the federal
government has authorized a medicinal marijuana-growing operation in Flin
Flon, Man.

Police forces across the country are vocally opposed to legalization, but
committees of the Senate and House of Commons in Ottawa are studying such a
possibility.

While the marijuana debate is likely to be the focus of media attention at
the weekend gathering, the official schedule of convention business calls
for dealing with the phenomenon of globalization.

Merizzi said the Quebec government should become a more active participant
in international decision-making, both in areas within provincial
jurisdiction and beyond.

New Foreign-Relations Deal

A resolution calls for negotiating an agreement with the federal government
to define Quebec's international role, and argues that the province should
do more internationally to defend and promote Quebec's cultural diversity
and the French fact in North America.

The young Liberals also suggested that Quebec's foreign-relations budget be
increased and don't see why the premier of the province should have to seek
permission from Ottawa to meet with foreign heads of state.

"I think it is important that the premier can see who he wants to, without
permission from the Canadian government," Merizzi said.

Last year, the young Liberals proposed that the teaching of English begin
in Quebec's French-language schools from the first grade.

This year, while maintaining that position, the young Liberals will be
asked to approve a resolution affirming that Bill 101 has been useful and
should be maintained, but rejecting the position advocated by PQ
hard-liners that the children of immigrants to Quebec should be streamed
into French CEGEPs or junior colleges.