CANNABIS CONSENSUS AT SESSION

The leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada and a cannabis activist
agreed cannabis should be decriminalized at a Friday discussion at the
University of Lethbridge hosted by the campus Libertarian Club.

Keith Fagin, a Calgary-based cannabis activist, said cannabis should
be legalized and treated like alcohol and tobacco - controlled and
taxed.

Dennis Young, Libertarian Party of Canada leader, said cannabis should
be decriminalized but not controlled or taxed, given party members
advocate for a government with limited powers.

Young spent years working on the other side of the fence, first as a
soldier and then in the military police. His experiences collecting
intelligence in Newfoundland, being at Ipperwash in 1993 when Dudley
George was killed, and putting his friend in a body bag in Bosnia
eventually made him take a step back to ponder the value of what
Canadian forces were doing and who was benefiting.

"Everything the government does somebody benefits," Young said.

He left the army and worked in the oilpatch for a while, although he
said he was unhappy and likely suffering from a degree of
post-traumatic stress disorder.

"You have money but no meaning," he told the audience of about 40
students.

A friend invited him to a Libertarian event and the party philosophy
captured his interest. The politics of a big government versus a free
society engaged him. He studied capitalism and socialism, and decided
capitalism means productivity, even though the downside is that some
people will commit crimes.

When substances are illegal, the trade in them typically leads to
violence. When alcohol was illegal, the trade in alcohol became
violent. When it became legal, violence became associated with use of
the substance, not in the trade of it. In the same vein, legalized
prostitution, Young said, doesn't lead to prostitutes
disappearing.

"The choice really is do you want the drugs and the prostitution there
or do you want drugs and prostitution and the violence there?" he said.

Fagin said Canada's medical marijuana program isn't working because
Canada has only a few qualified dispensaries and the marijuana
permitted by Health Canada is of low quality. He also talked about
Bill C-15, which deals with mandatory minimum sentences for drug
offenders. The Senate agreed to amend the bill this week to give
judges more leeway in sentencing convictions for growing between five
and 200 plants.

Fagin said media reports haven't been accurate and that the bill will
lead to increased incarceration and a larger burden on taxpayers. If
the product was legalized, the government would realize tax revenues
and be able to reduce its costs of enforcement. He said he encourages
people to use cannabis responsibly and not consume it in public.