GOVERNMENTS CAUGHT COMING AND GOING ON MARIJUANA ISSUES

The following editorial is from the Montreal Gazette:

This week, Health Minister Alan Rock announced that another 14
Canadians will be allowed to consume marijuana for therapeutic
purposes, while the government will spend several million dollars to
fund clinical trials on the therapeutic value of smoking pot.

At the same time, Bloc Quebecois MP Yvan Loubier called for a
crackdown on Quebec marijuana growers.

In Toronto, the federal government was in court, arguing against the
use of marijuana as medicine. In Quebec,a driver successfully argued
that she was under the influence of marijuana when she drove the wrong
way, causing a car crash in which two people were seriously injured.
Is marijuana dangerous? Or useful? What is a government supposed to do
if it is both?

There is no consensus on whether marijuana has legitimate medical
uses. Researchers in a two-year study done by 11 independent experts
at the U.S. Institute of Medicine disagreed with the position,
traditionally held by Canadian and United States governments, that
marijuana was the gateway to the use of harder drugs.

Yet as Loubier pointed out, organized crime, in Quebec at least, has
moved into the illicit marijuana market. If marijuana isn't the
gateway to the use of harder drugs, it seems to be the open door
through which organized crime plans to muscle its way to a profitable
market. Loubier says that he and his family have been threatened by
organized crime over his stance.

He paints a frightening picture of armed criminals invading Quebec's
family farms where, uninvited, they are growing potent marijuana
plants and intimidating farmers to keep silent. Colombia, home of the
drug cartels, started off this way: illegal plantations, threats
against politicians and judges who dared to speak out.

Law-enforcement authorities should slam the door as fast as they can
on this kind of activity.

At the same time, the government will have to draft legislation that
allows it to legitimize marijuana use for therapeutic purposes, while
keeping it illegal in all other circumstances.