THAT POT PROBLEM

Justice Minister Anne McLellan is supposed to meet with Edmonton police
chief John Lindsay this week to discuss Edmonton's blooming reputation for
growing highly potent marijuana.

It appears McLellan is embarrassed that her home town's "City of Champions"
slogan is now being applied to the really good quality dope being grown
here and exported abroad.

"I am going to get to the bottom of the concern," she has stated. By why?
McLellan, after all, has mused aloud about decriminalizing marijuana for
medicinal purposes.

Didn't we all rally around Ross Rebagliati after the International Olympic
Committee stripped him of - and then reinstated - his snowboarding gold
medal after testing positive for marijuana?

Indeed, Solicitor General Andy Scott, who has been invited to sit in on
McLellan's meeting with Edmonton's top cop, declared of Reefer Ross at the
time that "every Canadian would love to see him have his medal."

No wonder Rebagliati was confused by the spectacle that followed his drug
test. Because government and society in general are confused about where to
draw the line on marijuana.

Olympic athletes who smoke marijuana are heroes. Sick people deserve our
compassion and should be allowed to use marijuana to alleviate their
symptoms.

We've all heard the argument that ordinary people who grow or use dope in
their own home aren't harming anyone, so where's the crime? And now
McLellan is worried because Edmonton grows some wicked weed?

Apply the Ross test to Edmonton, and McLellan should be proud of our city's
reputation for major-league dope! Who knows, maybe we'll corner the
snowboard market in the process.

Perhaps the cops' recent bust of big hydroponic dope operations has
deprived suffering individuals of much-needed pain relief.

Yes, we're being facetious. In fact, we're glad that McLellan is taking the
pot issue seriously and meeting with police.

What we're complaining about is the lack of consistency from our elected
officials. Either marijuana is illegal or it is not.

We do not support the decriminalization of marijuana, even for medicinal
purposes, as we don't believe the medical evidence supports it.

So as McLellan meets with Edmonton cops this week to find a way to crack
down on Edmonton's growing pot industry, she needs to make sure her stance
on the marijuana issue is the same, through and through.

Mixed messages on drugs are just dopey.

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.