IF IT DOESN'T MATTER, LEGALIZE IT

The news coverage of Jane Purves's admission that she was a drug addict
into her late 20s was interesting, to say the least.

After showing clips of the Nova Scotia education minister's press
conference and then of Premier John Hamm's praise of her candour and
courage, CTV's reporter followed with three quick person-in-the-street
interviews, which said roughly, "It shouldn't matter. I don't see how it
matters. It really doesn't matter." Did no one in the streets of Halifax
think intravenous drug use mattered?

The reporter then signed off in a way that - though I don't have a
transcript or tape - made it pretty clear he didn't think it should matter,
either, and his tone almost suggested we should all be consulting our
consciences about the fact that we were actually interested in his report.

If nobody thinks it matters, why was it on the national news, why were
clips from Purves's press conference promo'd twice before the report
appeared, and why was she Page 1 above the fold in lots of the country's
newspapers?

Does Purves's past addiction matter?

It and her struggle to overcome it are probably the most important events
in her life. She's a parent, so that may seem a little harsh, since for
most parents their children are the most important things in their life.
But she lost her child for a time because of her addiction. "Drug use could
have ruined my life. It didn't," she said.

Five thousand missiles if the public has a right to know something about
the most important formative events in politicians' lives, then, yes, her
drug use probably does matter. In the same way, if George W. Bush had a
cocaine habit until he was well into his 30s, that says a lot about the
kind of person he was, which may say something about the kind of person he is.

If he were applying for dog-catcher or, with apologies to all Nova
Scotians, education minister of Nova Scotia, no one would care much.
President of the United States is a different matter. Five thousand
missiles make it so.

Does her addiction affect Purves's ability to do her job? She says she's
been clean for 20 years, which is five more years than Bush owns up to.

Recovering alcoholics say they are just that, recovering. Pop
bio-psychology attributes a susceptibility to relapse to the influence of
an addiction gene.

Perhaps such persons shouldn't subject themselves to the stress that being
education minister presumably involves. On the other hand, Purves was
previously a newspaper editor, so being education minister may be relaxing
by comparison. And it may be a useful preparation for being a minister
these days to have known despair up close and personal. (I'm referring to
her experience of addiction, not editoring.)

Drunk on beer would her past matter if she wanted to be Nova Scotia's
minister of justice? She has, as she told us Wednesday, a criminal record
for the possession of marijuana. There is the practical problem that a
person with a criminal record probably couldn't become a lawyer and a
non-lawyer is unlikely to become minister of justice.

But, technicalities aside, would it be all right to have as minister of
justice someone who had once broken the criminal law? It depends what law
he or she broke, is likely to be many people's reaction.

Violent crime is one thing, but possession of marijuana? Surely that's the
same order of misdemeanour as getting drunk on beer. Purves's drug use
evidently went well beyond that, but her record is for something most of
her peers regard as trifling.

If it doesn't matter - and everything we have heard since Wednesday
suggests it doesn't matter - why is it still on the books?

If it doesn't matter - and everyone seems to think what George W. Bush
won't actually say he did doesn't matter - why are people still going to
jail for it, and why doesn't the party that looks like it might nominate
him favour changing the law?

Charles Kennedy, the new leader of Britain's Liberal-Democrats, has
proposed that British marijuana laws be reviewed, which presumably means
liberalized. I don't know if that makes me hopeful or, since his party is
something of a political irrelevancy, depressed.

- - William Watson, editor of Policy Options, teaches economics at McGill
University.