TORIES BUST LEGAL POT

Local pot smokers will still light up - and collect criminal records
while they're at it - if Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes good on
a promise to scrap legislation that would decriminalize marijuana,
say pot proponents.

The prime minister's pledge was among a host of crime-fighting vows
he made yesterday.

But B.O.B Headquarters owner Robert Ritchot suggests Harper is
wasting his time.

"It's been proven time and time again that going hard-line on
something like marijuana is never, ever going to reduce the amount of
marijuana grown, sold and smoked in Canada and in the world," said
Ritchot, whose Brandon stores sell smoking products and hemp items.

"It will put a lot more people in jail and there'll just be way more
Canadians that have records," he added.

The prime minister's pot plan was also greeted coolly by a
20-year-old Brandon woman who smokes marijuana daily and doesn't plan to quit.

"It's not a bad thing," she said. "It's not half as harmful to you as
cigarette smoke.

"I'm going to do it either way, whether it's legal or not," said the
woman, who wished not to be named.

It also doesn't make sense that marijuana is outlawed while a
powerful hallucinogen like Salvia divinorum is legal, she added.

One Westman Tory MP even thinks Harper and Justice Minister Vic Toews
should mellow out.

Instead of decriminalizing weed as the Liberals proposed,
Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette MP Inky Mark said his government should
take things and step further and legalize pot.

"It's either you take a hard position and penalize the people who are
in the business or else you regulate it and tax it to death," Mark said.

"Personally, I would legalize it like ... alcohol and tobacco. Then
you actually would control it. I know that's not the party's
position, but that' s my preference.

"It's a waste of resources" to get the police to prosecute pot
smokers, Mark added. "You're not getting ahead."

Outside the House of Commons, Toews repeated to reporters his earlier
pledge to continue charging and prosecuting people caught with marijuana.

"It's simply not a priority issue for us," Toews said.

"We're in a minority Parliament, we have lots of ambitious things to
do. The decriminalization of marijuana simply isn't on the priority list."

Yesterday, Harper said his Tory government will crack down on crime
this legislative session by taking aim at guns, drugs and sex offenders.

He found a receptive audience at a Canadian Professional Police
Association meeting, as he told law enforcers the Conservatives will
hire more police officers, introduce mandatory minimum sentences,
repeal the faint hope clause and crack down on parole by doing away
with the practice of releasing most convicts after two-thirds of
their sentences.

The Tories would abolish the long-gun registry - the controversial
Liberal creation that requires all shotgun and rifle owners to
register their weapons - and use the savings to hire more police.