LEGALIZE MARIJUANA - SENATOR

Canada must never decriminalize marijuana, warns a Conservative Party
senator - legalize it instead.

"Decriminalization is the worst scenario," Senator Pierre Claude Nolin
said yesterday, the third day of the city's international harm
reduction conference. "It's not the step in the right direction."

Nolin said drug laws must either prohibit marijuana or not;
Decriminalization lies in the shaky ground in between.

"It's sending the signal [marijuana] is still illegal, but we'll just
fine you instead," Nolin said.

Prohibition, on one hand, doesn't allow for effective prevention
strategies, said Nolin. Instead, the senator wants to focus on
outright legalization in a "controlled market environment", leaving it
up to provinces to regulate, much like liquor laws vary across
provincial borders.