WRESTLING WITH OUR LEADERS' DRUG PROBLEM

Keith Martin, the Reform party MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C., has
introduced a private member's bill in the Parliament of Canada to
decriminalize marijuana. Good for him.

In a related development, Ontario Premier Mike Harris admitted he ``found
booze a little more attractive'' than he did marijuana and - like Bill
Clinton - he had never inhaled. Since last week was Confessional Week in
Ontario, both leaders of the province's other major parties admitted they,
too, had smoked pot.

Both Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader Howard Hampton advocated
that possession of the drug be decriminalized. Harris is against
decriminalization, a surprise to no one. He is for ``zero tolerance,'' he
says. Decriminalization for possession would be ``sending our kids the wrong
message.''

Kids for Mike Harris, then, ought to find the hard stuff ``a little more
attractive.'' Furthermore, it's easier to find - just look in the family
liquor closet - while consuming it carries no sanction as long as you drink
at home and don't drive.

Both McGuinty and Hampton are anxious the public knows they don't condone
marijuana. Hampton says he smoked pot ``way back in university,'' where
``virtually everyone tried (it).'' (Excuses, excuses.) Anyway, ``It wasn't
worthwhile for me. I didn't enjoy the experience of not being in full
control of my faculties.''

This sounds like special pleading, and the message is mixed. But while the
NDP leader is on the right side - in support of decriminalization - he
sounds equivocal and reluctant. As for McGuinty, Harris says he is ``out of
touch with reality,'' and that ``he makes excuses for those who break the
law.''

The Liberal leader thus feels obliged to make everything perfectly clear:
``(Children) should not be doing drugs of any kind at any time. And I don't
want them smoking, either.'' I'll drink to that, anytime.

But the arguments for or against decriminalization have nothing to do with
``kids.'' No one is trying to make smoking marijuana safe for children. The
criminality now involved in possession of the drug applies to adults, not to
children. Why do grown men in leadership roles feel the need to purge
themselves of any suspicion they might be schoolyard drug-pushers? Why can't
adults talk like adults about an adult issue?

Perhaps the media have had a hand in trivializing the subject. Harris was
asked by the press how he would feel should his 14-year-old son be found
with marijuana. This allowed the Premier to assume a posture of Olympian
detachment. ``I would feel,'' he replied, ``that he had broke the law and
would have to suffer the consequences.''

The Association of Canadian Police Chiefs wants to legalize possession for
personal use both for marijuana and hash. They are years ahead of our
politicians.

Harris accuses the cops of ``throwing in the towel.'' No knowledgable,
impartial body exists to support Harris' position. But then, injustice and
disproportional penalties are not easy subjects for a man like Harris to get
his head around. Nuance is as alien to him as doubt. He says of McGuinty, in
his diatribe against the Liberal leader, that he ``makes excuses for those
who break the law . . . he blames poverty or he blames despair.''

We have been undergoing an orgy of self-examination of late, attending
televised funerals for the very young, asking why, and who's, to blame for
this trauma and terror. The usual suspects have been assembled - parents,
teachers, the Internet, guns, media violence, and kids themselves. All
appear to have an alibi, and none has filed a guilty plea.

Having endured as much of this as anyone I know, my own conclusion is that
our children, and our society, are the collateral victims of inadequate laws
and inadequate leadership. Or, if you like your whisky straight, of dumb
laws and ever dumber leaders.

Today's political fashion is to govern from the bottom up; what we now have
are bottom-feeders at the top, leading - so to speak - from the bottom down.

Don't ask where the party caucus is on Thursday night - it's watching World
Championship Wrestling, guys on steriods whacking one another with metal
folding chairs while sparsely clad models mysteriously crawl through the
ropes, in and out of the ring.

Among the audience are children, some of them under 10, some over 60, most
of them transfixed by fantasy.

It has the same surreal mindlessness as our modern election campaigns - all
about everything but reality.

Keith Martin, the Reform reformer, has the right idea and the House of
Commons the opportunity to support his motion, an opportunity to lead public
opinion rather than exploit ignorance, superstition, and fear. As for the
drug wars in Ontario, look for a Hulk Hogan government, two falls out of
three.

Dalton Camp is a political commentator. His columns appear Sundays and
Wednesdays in The Star.