SENATOR PUSHING SOFTER DRUG PENALTIES

Hearings Begin This Fall On Decriminalizing Recreational Use Of Drugs

OTTAWA - The chairman of the Senate committee on drug use lets out a hearty
laugh when asked if he's ever smoked pot.

"Yes, oh yes," Senator Pierre Claude Nolin says enthusiastically.
"Twenty-five per cent of the population has tried drugs, according to some
studies, and I'm certainly one of them."

The multi-party, five-member committee is expected to begin hearings this
fall on decriminalizing recreational use of all drugs.

Nolin, 49, says taxpayers aren't high on seeing money poured into making
criminals out of thousands of people for simple possession.

Laws have failed to curb drug use, he says, just as the U.S. prohibition on
alcohol in the 1920s failed to stop drinking and made a few gangsters rich.

"The money in drugs is immense, huge, and ends up in legal operations," he
says.

The senator, named to the chamber of sober second thought in 1993, says his
unelected status gives him something MPs don't have -- the ability to
review legislation without looking over his shoulder.

"Elected politicians are afraid of tackling some issues because of perceived
sensitivity by their constituents."

Admissions that politicians have inhaled used to be considered news, but
Canadian Alliance leadership candidate Stockwell Day's confession to drug
use as a teen barely raised an eyebrow.

"The population is smarter than some would give them credit," Nolin says.
"They're less concerned with drug use and don't see it as the problem it
once was thought to be."