SANER DRUG LAWS GO UP IN SMOKE

It's back to Square One for everyone who's been advocating the
decriminalization of marijuana possession now that the tough-on-crime
folks are in power.

Not that there's anything wrong with punishing real lawbreakers. But
do we want to continue burdening tens of thousands of Canadians a
year with criminal records because they toke up to relax instead of drinking?

We came closer than ever to crafting saner drug laws with the Liberal
plan to decriminalize the possession for personal use of less than 15
grams of marijuana.

(I personally agree with the Senate committee that recommended pot be
legalized and regulated like booze, but decriminalization would have
been a huge step in the right direction.)

That's all a hazy pot dream now, however. The Conservatives will bury
that idea faster than David Emerson jilted the Grits to join Stephen
Harper's cabinet.

What a terrible rebuke to sound public policy. Experts have been
reiterating for years that marijuana is not a gateway drug to worse
substances and that, in fact, there never was a good reason to ban
pot in the first place.

The gateway is not pot, it's the black market, explained an astute
Senator Pierre Claude Nolin several years ago. Nolin was the chair of
the special Senate committee on illegal drugs that proposed the
legalization of pot in a persuasive 2002 report.

With the new regime in Ottawa, unfortunately, progressive drug reform
will go up in smoke. The Conservatives won't ban abortion. They know
Canadians wouldn't stand for it.

They'll likely leave same-sex marriage alone because they don't want
a court battle over the issue.

So they'll concentrate on cracking down on crime - a sure winner with
Canadians who are fed up with our revolving-door justice system.

Tough mandatory minimum sentences for gun-related crimes, as the
Tories have promised, are welcome, as is an overhaul of the
conditional sentencing program that lets even criminals convicted of
serious crimes lounge around under house arrest.

But shying away from decriminalizing marijuana is political cowardice
based on blind ideology.

Three-quarters of reported drug incidents annually are for cannabis
and most of the cannabis-related offences are for pot possession. Ask
yourself if this is the best use of our crime-fighting resources.

Wouldn't you rather the police devote their efforts to more serious
crimes? Even the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police favours the
decriminalization of pot for personal use.

If the Conservatives are worried about how they're going to implement
their promised GST cut without cutting services, there's an easy
solution. Legalize pot and tax it.

They won't do it, of course. It's sound policy and it would generate
lots of cash to treat people addicted to the really dangerous drugs,
like coke and meth, but talking to the Tories about drug reform is
like talking to the wall.

As for the medicinal marijuana program, perhaps they'll try to cancel
that, too.

Health Canada's original five-year contact with Prairie Plant
Systems, which grows the country's medicinal pot in an unused
underground mine in Manitoba, expired in December and was given a
six-month extension by the former Liberal government.

Will it still be around in June or will the Conservatives pull the
plug on the operation?

(Government-grown pot hasn't exactly been a hit. Of the approximately
1,200 Canadians allowed to possess marijuana for medical purposes,
only about 280 are buying either dried pot or seeds from the government stash.)

Toronto lawyer Alan Young says if the Tories abandon the medical
marijuana program, the courts will likely force Ottawa to
decriminalize marijuana possession.

"I'd love to go back to court and get rid of the prohibition (on
possession)," he says. "I don't think this government has the ability
to backpedal on this program."