TIME TO CLEAR THE SMOKE

Prohibition against marijuana has been massively counter-productive
and expensive

Driving under the influence of any mind-altering substance -- perhaps
with the exception of coffee -- is a bad idea.

That's the message emphasized by University of Toronto researchers
who, nonetheless, had some interesting -- though not entirely
surprising -- news to share on marijuana motoring.

Recent research into impairment and traffic accident data from several
countries, states the report, indicate marijuana, when consumed alone,
"does not significantly increase a driver's risk of causing an
accident -- unlike alcohol."

Both alcohol and cannabis affect driving performance, says the U of
T's Alison Smiley, who adds those who smoked marijuana tended to be
much more cautious behind the wheel due to the heightened awareness of
their impairment.

The data fits in well with the well-known paranoia effect, accompanied
by the even more infamous "Twinkie effect" among dope smokers.

By comparison, "subjects who received alcohol tend to drive in a more
risky manner," said Smiley.

While Smiley stops short of advocating the outright legalization of
marijuana, she says the information could contribute to the debates
over drug testing for transportation employees and the
decriminalization of cannabis for medicinal use.

"There's an assumption that because marijuana is illegal, it must
increase the risk of an accident. We should try to just stick to the
facts," said Smiley.

They're facts that must seem mighty subversive to the powers-that-be
struggling to ensure marijuana remains the criminally forbidden fruit.

This, in a nation where 40,000 people a year die from the effects of
legal tobacco.

This obscene statistic takes the sheen off images of police officers
gloating for the cameras to showcase their latest drug seizure.

A portion of the resources now squandered on controlling the scourge
of marijuana and other drugs would be better devoted to curtailing
massively lethal smoking levels.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Even some Reform Party MPs have openly questioned the wisdom of
Canada's continued focus on criminalizing the use of certain drugs.

That shouldn't actually be surprising, since right-wing Reformers are
champions of the philosophy of personal freedoms -- as long as those
actions don't harm others.

Jailing citizens for consuming substances not endorsed by the majority
seems at obvious conflict with the Canadian notion of individual
rights. And it's been massively counterproductive and expensive.

Last month, Montreal Tory Senator Pierre Claude Nolin added his voice
to calls for further review of Canada's war on drugs.

The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act's implementation three years
ago was accompanied by the recommendation a joint committee examine
all of Canada's anti-drug laws and policies, notes Nolin.

Typically, inertia has proven stronger than any recommendation.

That reluctance, states Nolin correctly, is "nearly a matter of
blindness, in some cases, voluntary blindness. That blindness has led
successive governments, regardless of political stripe, to never
consider drug use in Canada as a health issue, only a criminal issue."

Perhaps we should be asking our blinkered politicians just what
they've been smoking.