MPS TAKE DRUGS SERIOUSLY

As a public service to our readers, we want to draw your attention to a
small news story you may have missed last Friday in your haste to depart
for the holiday weekend: All five parties in the House of Commons have
voted unanimously to establish a parliamentary committee to study the issue
of illegal drugs.

Though the mandate was drawn so widely as to permit, in theory, a decision
to stiffen penalties or presumably ban other drugs, at least two and a half
parties (the NDP and the Bloc, plus some Liberals) openly intend to push
for decriminalization of at least one drug: marijuana.

The Citizen has long argued for decriminalization, including in an in-depth
series of articles by then-editorial writer Dan Gardner, whose work has
been nominated for the prestigious Michener Prize (the winner of which will
be announced later this week).

As they embark on their deliberations, MPs must remember that the
fundamental issue is not whether a given drug is good, bad or mostly
harmless. If it were, alcohol is as harmful as any drug could wish to be,
but nobody is considering recriminalizing it. The real issue is people's
freedom to make their own choices based on their own risk assessments.
Parties that nominally favour freedom, such as the Alliance and the Tories,
might want to try applying principle to this issue.

Members of Parliament should be congratulated for finally taking up this
contentious and divisive issue. Drug policy has long been paralyzed by
political cowardice. Establishing this committee took courage. Probably
all-party agreement was required to avoid cheap exploitation of the issue.
That's politics.

For once, it's good politics.