NEW GOVERNMENT MUST REFORM MARIJUANA LAWS

To the surprise of no one - with the possible exception of my
neighbour who has, I think, been stoned since September 1966 - Prime
Minister Stephen Harper announced on Monday that his government will
not soften Canada's marijuana laws.

Harper stated emphatically that the Conservatives will not promote the
Liberal party's marijuana reform bill, which never quite got anywhere
since the government fell.

It may have just been me, but I got the impression that Steve dislikes
the Liberals even more than he is unamused by pot. Perhaps if the
Saskatchewan Party for the Humane Clubbing of Baby Skunks (I heard
that their spokesman is the newly knighted Sir Tom Jones) had
suggested the reform law, Steve might have been more amenable.

At least he didn't accuse the Liberals of being in cahoots with the
mob, which he did last year. While no doubt some organized crime in
Canada does exist, I don't think we have a real mob - more like an
unruly group.

I'm not blaming Steve for being wary of Liberals, mind you. A lot of
us out here thought they were, unlike good wine, not aging well. We
were ready for a change.

But back to pot. Harper is half right about marijuana. He says he'll
crack down on drug pushers and get drugs off the streets away from our
kids. Good. He will not decriminalize the use of marijuana. Bad.

The Liberal bill would have also cracked down on grow-ops and the like
while decriminalizing pot. Yes, it was time for the Martin gang to go,
but the Liberals did get it right on pot. Almost.

There is absolutely no point in having our already overburdened police
force running after marijuana users when their expertise can be put to
much better use. I do not want to see my local police force wasting
its time nabbing pot smokers, when the incidence of drunk driving is
still far too high, when home invasions multiply, and when violence on
the streets is prevalent.

Certainly, the grow-op entrepreneur ought to be smacked with the
heaviest sentence possible and I applaud Steve for his stated
intention of sticking it to such low-lifes.

But the pot user who has in his possession 15 grams or less is not a
menace to society. His actions - overeating, walking funny and
giggling - are benign in comparison with those of the nasty drunk
intent on beating up the nearest human being. The casual marijuana
user is no danger to himself or anyone else.

If society requires a drug to get excited about, let's try meth. There
is a drug, readily available and cheaply made, which fries the brain,
changes the personality and ruins the lives of its users - who are
multiplying daily. Meth users are dangerous, often violent, and
totally unpredictable.

Or what of the alcoholic - particularly the one who insists on
driving? Let's get him or her off the streets and out from behind the
wheel. Drunk drivers kill and injure people; pot smokers do not.

The fear of marijuana is nothing more than a leftover blob of
self-righteous indignation from the '60s. There was a horrible fear
that our children would smoke a little mary-jane and immediately
become heroin users. I suppose a few did and I know that not a few
skipped pot and went right to heroin and crack. Then, as now, some
became alcoholics and ruined their lives.

So, while some of us are still worried about a '60s phenomenon, the
world of drugs has moved on. And unfortunately, it has moved on to
something as horrific as meth. No politician would dare scare the life
out of the good Canadian citizenry by suggesting a Holland-style
society in which marijuana is sold and smoked openly in cafes. But
surely we can take a small step into sanity by decriminalizing the
stuff.

The Liberal bill proposed that possession of 15 grams (half an ounce)
or less of marijuana be treated as a ticketable offence with no
criminal record. Stephen could reword the bill to his liking:
"Canadian citizens may possess 15 grams of marijuana and receive a
ticket along with a T-shirt reading 'Stephen Harper does not approve
of me.' " Anyone else (16 grams and up) will be tied to a tree in
Saskatchewan, if we can find one, and flogged.

It was, and is, time for the decriminalization of marijuana.