ROCK SHOWS SOME CLASS

We're pleased to see Allan Rock is keeping himself amused. After an
appearance before a parliamentary committee to answer questions about
medical marijuana, the health minister was asked by the press whether he
himself had ever lit up. Grinning like Cheech Marin, Mr. Rock replied, "As a
former attorney-general of Canada, I'm keenly aware there's a right against
self-incrimination in this country. And I fully intend to invoke that
right."

Tee-hee, Mr. Rock. How droll.

We wonder, though, if everyone found the minister's witticism so delightful.
How about, say, the 600,000 Canadians slapped with criminal records for
doing exactly what Mr. Rock may or may not (wink, wink) have done? We doubt
they chuckled along with the merry minister.

But if Mr. Rock's humour is flat, it is certainly familiar. Giggly
one-liners like Mr. Rock's are the standard response of politicians whenever
marijuana is mentioned. The media, too, seem incapable of discussing it
without the juvenile puns and tittering that show they just do not see
marijuana as a serious issue.

But why not? In Canada last year, 72 per cent of all drug offences involved
marijuana. That's up from 58 per cent in 1991. Then there's simple marijuana
possession -- which Mr. Rock sloughed off with a smirk and the knowing
laughs of reporters.

It alone makes up one-half of all drug offences. Tens of millions of
dollars, thousands of police officers, scores of new laws, untold numbers of
judges, attorneys and jail guards, and nearly 70,000 prosecutions every
year: The whole machinery of drug prohibition is mainly about marijuana.
Marijuana isn't just a serious issue. It's huge. So why do politicians and
media treat it like trivia? At the risk of sounding like Marxists, the
reason is class bias.

For members of the middle- and upper-classes -- in which most politicians
and journalists are snugly ensconced -- marijuana truly isn't a big deal.
Frat boys caught puffing a joint might get scolded by the university don or
perhaps kicked out of residence. The teenager caught with pot in the school
washroom will be suspended and sent home to her angry parents. The
stockbroker found lighting up in his BMW will likely get off with a warning
and a smirk from a cop. Only rarely will the justice system take these
"crimes" seriously enough to land the offenders in court.

If the middle-class dope-smoker is put in front of a judge, it's not likely
he'll face Biblical vengeance. The well-spoken, the nicely dressed, the
"good kid from a decent home": These will almost certainly get a conditional
or absolute discharge. No criminal record. Certainly no jail time.

This is how the law typically deals with marijuana in the world of
journalists and politicians. It's all they know, so they assume it's all
there is to know.

But there is more to the story, as the mammoth number of marijuana
convictions shows. Lower-class dope-smokers who aren't so articulate, don't
dress so nicely, do come from broken families and have had other brushes
with the law while growing up in lousy circumstances: The justice system
takes marijuana very seriously for these people.

They get jail time. They get criminal records. They are punished and their
lives forever burdened simply because they did something frat boys,
stockbrokers, (and cabinet ministers?) do every day with impunity.

It's no joke. It's not something to giggle about. It's a serious injustice
that has to end.