TIME TO PASS BILL DECRIMINALIZING PERSONAL POT USE

MP Martin's Push For Fine Instead Should Not Irk U.S.

Uncle Sam should have no argument against B.C. MP Keith Martin's
private-member's bill to stop criminally charging Canadians for
personal-use marijuana possession and to fine them instead.

The U.S. government wouldn't have a leg to stand on if it tried to
block Canadian decriminalization of pot.

Quietly, the drug has become effectively legal in California.

The California development is a bit of a sham, really, a back-door,
referendum-initiated approach to letting stoners get high without fear
of The Man, while facilitating legitimate medical use by those
suffering chronic illnesses such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

It's based on 1996 and 2004 state legislation allowing pot growing,
possession and consumption for medical reasons. A doctor needs to
approve the weed to treat chronic health issues.

The U.S. government, which still outlaws medical-use marijuana, agreed
in March to stop medical-pot raids except when state and federal laws
are broken.

I was in California last month when U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder
announced the new American pot policy. I talked to users and growers,
and I can assure you that Californians need not be on death's door to
get a doctor's recommendation allowing them to grow dope and shop in
marijuana stores selling 50 or more different varieties of pot and
hashish.

There's even an outfit in San Francisco that dispatches bike
messengers with satchels full of weed when doctor-approved customers
phone in an order.

A one-minute search on the Internet, or a call to a hooked-up friend,
will provide a list of MDs who approve the herbal remedy for nearly
any ailment.

Trouble sleeping? Anxiety? Depression? Lack of appetite? Sports
injury? The doctor says, "Smoke pot."

Shops also peddle a variety of marijuana-infused drinks and edibles to
deliver the THC without clouding the lungs.

Vendor names run the gamut from the clinical -- Patient Dynamic Care
in Los Angeles -- to the psychedelic -- Mr. Purple Skunk in Modesto.

Stores' various strains are subject to critical review. A consumer in
posh Tiburon complained online that for his $60 US, he expected an
eighth-ounce of "high-grade bud" but his purchase "tasted terrible and
sparked." However, he noted, "it did get me high." Another Marin
County customer praised the "great high-quality meds" and gushed that
the delivery driver "had lots of love for me."

Thirteen states have approved medical-pot use, but California,
naturally, stands on the cutting edge of the legalization wedge.

Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Martin says decriminalizing simple marijuana
possession will help take pot profits out of the gang-war equation,
letting people grow the drug instead of buying it in the
blood-drenched black market.

Compared with what's going on in California, decriminalizing pot in
Canada looks like a sneeze in a typhoon. Pass the bill, man. Then pass
the Electric Hindu Kush. I feel a tummy-ache coming on.