LEGALIZATION PROBABLY BEST

The quiet opening of a new marijuana compassion club in Nanaimo
brings up two challenging questions.

The Organic Matters Compassionate Access Centre on Wallace Street
will only sell its various pot products to those who have a written
recommendation from a doctor.

Strip away all the rhetoric and what it comes down to is how we
handle enforcement of current laws and what is the future of
including marijuana in the current regime of the criminal law in Canada.

Given the recent election of a Conservative majority, those who want
to see pot either decriminalized or legalized are not likely to see
much action. In fact, indications are that the Harper Tories may
tighten up penalties for possession of even small amounts of pot.

When reached by the Daily News, the RCMP were unable to say whether
the Organic Matters Compassionate Access Centre has been authorized
and licensed by Health Canada to legally distribute pot.

If so, great. Let's incorporate the compassion model into the debate
around the future legislation of marijuana. If not, I have no
sympathy for the owners should they be raided by the police and
prosecuted in court.

Breaking the law does nothing to advance this issue of changing or
even getting rid of Canada's pot laws.

Probably there is a place for places like the Organic Matters
Compassionate Access Centre given the scientific evidence that
marijuana can alleviate certain conditions. Even if the effect is a
placebo, who cares?

What we ought not to do in Canada is decriminalize pot. Given its
stature next to alcohol, without doubt the most destructive drug in
our society, pot needs to be legalized and regulated.

There are several objectives that any reform of our pot law must
achieve. The first is controlled access to the drug for medical and
recreational use. The time has come for the state to end its blanket
ban on what for the most part is a rather innocuous substance.

And I recognize the link between pot and organized crime. But as has
been pointed out quite rightly many times, it's keeping it illegal
that has contributed to pot being linked up with harder drugs and the
related violent drug trafficking culture.

Legalizing pot along the same lines as we've legalize booze and
tobacco is now pretty much a no-brainer. We will have much more
success keeping it out of the hands of young people with that than
the current enforcement efforts.

There are other issues to work out, like driving while impaired by
pot, or getting stoned before going to work once it is readily
available; but then we're not having much luck on those counts with alcohol.

Smoking dope recreationally doesn't make much sense to me, and I fail
to understand why so many are so enthusiastic about it. But perhaps
it's time to just say there's an elephant in our proverbial living
room by finally legalizing this substance and imposing strict
controls on its production and sale.

That's not likely to happen in the next four years, but the debate
must continue.