SQUARES LEAD THE 'LIGHT-UP' BRIGADE

Unlikely Doves: The Fraser Institute Is Hardly A Hippy Haven. But The
Right-Wing Think Tank Argues The Costly War On Pot Is A Bust And Hardly
Worth The Effort

Caption: CP/Mounties seize hundreds of marijuana plants during a raid in
Halifax. The Fraser Institute argues the cost of the war on drugs far
outweighs any social and economic benefits.

No longer are pot smokers alone in fighting for the legal right to smoke up.
In the past decade, a number of squeaky-clean community leaders have joined
the battle.

Leading the charge of the square brigade is the right-wing think tank from
Vancouver, the Fraser Institute. In the past few years, the institute has
campaigned relentlessly for decriminalizaton. They've organized conferences
and are about to publish a book pushing their position.

The questions is: Will this new dynamic in the decriminalization debate have
any effect on Canadian law?

Patrick Basham, the social issues expert at the Fraser Institute, is
optimistic.

It's one thing to hear long-haired, pot smokers arguing so they can more
easily use their favourite drug, Basham says, but quite another to hear
similar arguments coming from conservatives like himself, who have never
smoked pot, yet believe Canada's present prohibition laws are exceedingly
harmful.

"When you're arguing against people who are simply rationalizing their own
lifestyle, that's relatively easy to defeat, but when you have such a bunch
of squares coming on and saying things that I say, and other people say,
it's much harder."

Edmonton defence lawyer Robbie Davidson, who has smoked pot and defended
numerous pot smokers in court, first spoke out in favour of
decriminalization when he was a law student in the early 1970s. Davidson
doubts that Fraser Institute-style libertarians have the staying power on
this issue to make a difference. "It may be the flavour of the week for the
libertarians, but people get off and on soap boxes all the time," he says.

There's no political impetus to make the change, Davidson says. Most
Canadians are conservative when it comes to change. Baby boomers might have
cared about the issues back in the days when they smoked pot themselves, but
unless one of their children is arrested, Davidson doubts they'll fight for
decriminalization. "More likely they'd get on the bandwagon for increasing
RRSP allotments."

Davidson's attitudes are shared by Troy Stewart, 29, of Edmonton, who smokes
pot every day and runs the True North Hemp Co. on Whyte Avenue.

Stewart points to the recent crackdown on drugs in British Columbia. Along
with Manitoba and Quebec, B.C. is a hotbed for North American high-quality
hydroponic pot production, with an estimated 10,000 grow operations. It's a
$3 billion to $4 billion a year industry in the province, B.C.'s biggest
cash crop by far and one of the top five industries in the province.

Many Canadians Appear Apathetic on Drug Issue

However, responding to pressure from local police and from American drug
enforcement officers, there've been numerous raids lately on grow operations
and increases in prison sentences. One man found with 137 pot plants was
sentenced to two years in prison, even though the prosecution had only
recommended three months.

"I think it might get worse before it gets better," Stewart says.

Basham sees a lot of inertia on the issue, with many people complacently
accepting much of the rhetoric used in the 1920s when marijuana was first
declared illegal. A major opponent of the drug was Edmonton's Emily Murphy,
the first woman judge in the British Empire.

In 1973, Canada's LeDain Commission on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs said
Murphy's writings were extremely influential in shaping Canadian drug laws.
Murphy, wrote the commissioners, made racist arguments in her campaign,
arguing that marijuana was the tool of women-seducing, non-white,
non-Christian villains, who threatened the Anglo-Saxon way of life.

"Persons using this narcotic smoke the dried leaves of the plant which has
the effect of driving them completely insane," Murphy wrote in 1922.

"The addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Addicts to this drug,
while under its influence, are immune to pain E While in this condition they
become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any forms of
violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty."

Anti-marijuana groups no longer make such wild claims about the negative
effects of the drug. But the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission does
report that in the short term, marijuana impairs intellectual function,
short-term memory, learning ability and co-ordination. In the long term,
people who overuse pot may get a syndrome where they get increasingly
focused on the drug, becoming less interested in the outside world and less
motivated.

Not until the early 1990s, 70 years after Murphy raged against the drug, did
anyone of a conservative mindset take up the fight against her view. In
1993, Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute argued illegal drugs were a $10
billion a year industry in Canada, which could be taxed if it were
legalized.

In 1997 the socially conservative Alberta Report magazine voiced doubts
about the war on drugs, arguing it hadn't stopped marijuana use, but drug
profits had fuelled criminal organizations.

Basham's main arguments for legalization include:

- - Basham acknowledges marijuana is harmful to a person's health, but points
to the consensus among researchers that it is no more harmful than alcohol
or tobacco.

- - Decriminalizing, then legalizing, marijuana will not bring about a huge
new pool of drug abusers. Basham argues there are so many vices out there
already -- gambling, alcohol, tobacco, porn, harder drugs -- that making
marijuana more available won't have a huge impact, that anyone who is prone
to addiction, already is addicted.

- - The experience of prohibition shows punishment doesn't stop people from
using drugs; it just jacks up the prices and puts vast amounts of money into
criminal enterprises. World trade in illicit drugs is estimated at eight per
cent of all trade, Basham says.

The high cost of illicit drugs pushes users to commit crimes to pay for
their habit. In Vancouver, Basham says, 90 per cent of property crime is
drug-related, though much of this crime has nothing to do with marijuana,
but is related to the use of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

"I think licensed, regulated distribution outlets would be a vast
improvement on what we have now," Basham says.

- - Canada spent $1.4 billion to fight illicit drugs in 1997, Basham says,
most of it on law enforcement. This money would more effectively be spent on
education, teaching young people and addicts about the health and moral
issues around drug use.

- - The crime of possession, for which hundreds of thousands of Canadians have
received a criminal record, doesn't fit the seriousness of the offence. In
1997 alone, Basham says, 2,000 Canadians went to jail for simple possession.

- - In a 1998 article published by the Fraser Institute, Vancouver Const. Gil
Puder attacked the police motives in regards to strictly enforcing drug
laws. Puder said police officers use the public's fear of drugs and
drug-related crime to get big budgets, and to advance their own careers, but
they're unable to take effective action against the problem.

Drug arrests are easy to make, but they're usually made on the poor, not
big-time dealers, Puder said.

The anti-marijuana lobby is largely silent in Canada these days, but it's
not without a voice.

Renowned artist Jane Ash Poitras was recently at a 12-day art show in
Amsterdam, where both marijuana and prostitution are decriminalized.
Poitras, 48, says she was appalled by what she saw. Teens were smoking pot
on the streets and in the bars, she says. "They say they have the lowest
crime rate. That's because everything is legal. It's exploitative to let
your kids run wild and stoned in the streets...

"And the government makes money on the industry."

Poitras says she doesn't smoke marijuana but has known people who do and
hasn't liked what she's seen. "Their marks go down, their performance goes
down in work. They have long-term depressions. It takes the passion out of
life. I didn't see those kids in the coffee houses having passionate
discussions, getting all roared up. They were sitting there with red eyes,
totally stoned, emotionless.

"I wouldn't want our society to turn out like that. What bothers me is when
I told the (Dutch officials) my visceral opinions over it, they said, 'We
let the kids get it out of their systems, so when they get in their 20s
they'll go back to school and make something out of themselves.' I said,
'Once they get it out of their system, there'll be no brain cells left.' "

Such anti-drug sentiments are common in the United States, Canada's major
trading partner, which leads Basham to admit it will be politically and
logistically difficult to change things here if the Americans remain in a
state of prohibition.

However, he notes some American states are becoming more open to
decriminalizing marijuana use.

Challenge to Alliance Party to Overtake Liberals on the Issue

In Canada, the Liberal government is about to hire a private firm to grow
marijuana. The government wants clinical research done to find out if it's
safe and effective for patients to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes.

At the Liberal convention in March, delegates voted to support the
decriminalization of marijuana. Basham doubts senior Liberals like Prime
Minister Jean Chretien will take up this challenge, but was encouraged by
the vote. He hopes the fledgling Alliance Party will outpace the Liberals on
the issue.

"The Alliance Party has an opportunity to show the Liberals up as not being
progressive and forward-thinking ..."

The anti-pot, social conservative element remains strong in the Alliance
Party. MP Randy White has said he'll quit the party if it backs
decriminalization. But Alliance leadership candidate Dr. Keith Martin has
put forward a private member's bill to decriminalize the substance. Another
candidate, Alberta social conservative Stockwell Day, admitted he smoked pot
in his teen years.

Hardly an outraged voice was heard over Day's admission.

"It seems to be a plus if you admitted you used drugs," Basham says. "It
makes him more real for most people, and given his media image, Mr.
Religious Conservative, it's a good thing."

Basham also points out that Day smoked pot, but went on to become a solid,
non-drug abusing citizen, like most people who have smoked up.

"Prohibitionists always say that marijuana is a gateway drug. Yet there are
millions of people in North America who haven't touched a joint in 20 or 30
years. It's funny, that."

SOME LOCAL LEADERS' VIEWS ON MARIJUANA

Coun. Michael Phair

Personal: Used the drug in his youth, but hasn't for years.

Comment: It's time to rethink our marijuana laws, Phair says, and allow for
medicinal use, and to consider decriminalization.

Jerry Woods, lead singer of the band Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm
Orchestra

Personal: Used it rarely in the early '70s.

Comment: People who smoke marijuana may be misguided but they're not
criminals, he says. "The laws are completely inappropriate I don't think
using it is a virtue, but it's certainly not a crime."

Playwright Marty Chan

Personal: Smoked it occasionally in high school and university, but not
lately.

Comment: It should be legalized, Chan says. "I guess if you had some guy in
a three-piece suite in Raleigh, North Carolina wanting to grow it that would
be OK, but because it's some long haired guy in B.C., it's not respectable."

Artist Jane Ash Poitras

Personal: Smoked it in university, found it made her forgetful and paranoid.

Comment: It should be used as a medicine, but not be decriminalized, Poitras
says. "It's a mind-altering substance. It's not like when you have a drink
or two and you get a little giddy and you can still control your thoughts.
When you have a hit, you lose control. You're in a state of consciousness
where you can be taken advantage of, or you can go into a state of
paranoia."

Businessman Harvey Sheydwasser, owner of Logican Technologies

Personal: Grew up in 1960s and 1970s, but never smoked it once.

Comment: "I would not want to see it decriminalized. I think the law as it
stands is OK, with one exception, and that is for medicinal purposes.
Marijuana is detrimental to the individual and can become a cost to
society."

Bob Baker, Artistic Director of the Citadel

Personal: Used it as a teenager, but not recently.

Comment: It should be used for medicinal purposes and legalized, then
monitored like alcohol sales are, Baker says. "I personally consider it in
the same category as alcohol as far as harmful effects."

Businessman Troy Stewart, True North Hemp Co.

Personal: Uses it every day.

Comment: "People who are against pot are really weird about it. They believe
I must be a drooling idiot and can't conduct myself, and can't think, and
I'm obviously no good to society. It's as if I don't really employ 12
people, and I don't pay thousands of dollars in taxes. They want to put me
in jail for the rest of my life."

Alliance MP Ian McClelland

Personal: Has smoked it a few times.

Comment: McClelland says it should be decriminalized, but not legalized.
People who've had experience with the drug have told him it led to abuse
with stronger narcotics. He's also worried that in legalizing and taxing it,
the government would be giving its stamp of approval on use of the drug.
"Anything mood altering is an escape from reality. Success is achieved by
dealing with reality, not escaping from it."