JUST SAY NO TO U.S. DRUG OUTPOST

Americans are entitled to their own loopy laws against drugs, a writer
posits. But they shouldn't be allowed to set up shop north of the border to
snare devotees of B.C. Bud.

If ever there was something to protest, it is the proposed opening of a
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in Vancouver. Are the Mounties
nuts?

The idea that the ugly face of the Americans' draconian, failed and idiotic
drug policy is being welcomed in Vancouver is outrageous. All the more so
because the avowed intention of the Americans is to target marijuana: B.C.
Bud. Not heroin, not cocaine -- pot.

I have no use at all for pot. One hit and I go to sleep. I happen to very
much like Americans, but their deranged attitude toward marijuana has
become so vicious that their enforcement officers cannot be allowed in
Canada. Allowing them in would endorse a drug war whose major victims are
America's own citizens.

Canada refuses to extradite accused criminals facing murder charges in the
United States unless we obtain assurances they will not be subject to the
death penalty. As a nation we refuse to be complicit in the judicial murder
of even the most awful criminal. We are saying to our American friends:
"You have a perfect right to pass any laws you wish, but where we disagree
we will not cooperate. That is our right."

America's pointless war on drugs has created a frenzy about pot. A mania
which has lead to federal and state laws like Oklahoma's where growing or
possessing any quantity of marijuana -- a single plant -- can lead to a
life sentence. Mandatory minimum sentences for possession combined with the
three-strikes felony laws in many states mean that five years to life for a
simple possession charge is possible. In 1998, 700,000 people were charged
with possession in the U.S.

In testimony before Congress in May, Donnie Marshall, head administrator of
the DEA, stated, "Marijuana is the most widely abused and readily available
illicit drug in the United States with an estimated 11.5 million current
users. At least one-third of the U.S. population has used marijuana
sometime in their lives."

This does not suggest the geniuses at the DEA are capturing the hearts and
minds of their people.

As ever, the Americans have a perfect right to pass any goofy laws they
want. If they need to demonize marijuana to justify their war on drugs --
and to finance it, since most of the asset seizures in America that the
drug enforcement agencies have come to depend on for their budget are
marijuana-related -- that is their problem. But Canada, with a radically
different approach to drugs, must not become enmeshed.

This is particularly true in B.C. Through creative inaction on the part of
many of the police forces in B.C. as well as a strategy of de facto
prosecutorial neglect, possession and cultivation of marijuana, for
personal use or for sale, is becoming decriminalized.

There is a growing recognition that, whatever else marijuana is, it should
not be a matter that should rouse much legal attention. That is our choice
and it is supported by the bulk of our population.

Even British Columbians who think we should be stricter about marijuana
would blink at the idea of a life sentence for growing a single plant.

However, by allowing the DEA to open an office in B.C. we are tacitly
endorsing the U.S. government's war on drugs and on its own citizens.

The idea that the agents stationed in such an office would not be actually
policing crime but would rather be "gathering information" is a crock.
Gathering information is policing. The agents would be here to obtain
information which would lead to arrests of Americans and Canadians in the
U.S. Information that would lead directly to the incarceration for absurd
terms of people whose activities would merit no more than a conditional
discharge in Canada.

Here is a distinctly un-Canadian idea: We can "Just Say No." We should
maintain the courage of our convictions by adding a bit of friendly advice:
"Surrender. You've lost the war. Pot isn't going away. Putting people in
jail isn't going to help. Get over it. You were wrong about booze and
you're wrong about pot."

The anti-drug crusaders will probably put us on some sort of list. George
W. Bush might not invite Jean Chretien fishing. But the intelligent,
liberal majority in America -- currently silenced by the zealots -- will
thank us.

Many Americans are appalled by the culture of drug testing, asset seizure
and mandatory minimums. As more of their children are sent to prison for
years at a time, the U.S. anti-drug crusaders will begin to realize how
misguided the war on drugs is. A bit of Canadian common sense will be
remembered.

So, start painting the signs: "DEA, Go Away. Bust your kids some other way."

Jay Currie is a Vancouver writer.