POT ISSUE THE 'PERFECT STORM'

Camping with family recently, a faint whiff of sweet something floats
across the fresh Kootenay air. "Smells like weed," says the 14-year-old
nephew. "How do you know what weed smells like?" I ask. It's a trick
question, one my mother had tried out on me some 30 years earlier. To know
the smell of the demon herb was to be guilty by mere proximity. Not anymore.

"Dude, we live in Vancouver," he says. Translation: you can't grow up in
this city-however squaresville a Daddy-O you might be -and remain oblivious
to the aroma of what may as well be the province's official leaf.

I too grew up in Vancouver, but when I was his age, pot was something
smoked furtively behind school portables. With rare, and seemingly
arbitrary police enforcement of existing pot laws, Vancouverites can now be
found toking in the most indiscreet locations. It is, like gay people
holding hands, something that gains attention only from passing turnip trucks.

Decriminalizing or legalizing pot may be more popular than the ward system.
But the thing about marijuana reform is that, while most people see pot as
no worse than booze, most voters don't care enough about it one way or the
other to make it a litmus issue on voting day.

The Marijuana Party, with its surprisingly comprehensive and arguably quite
right-wing policies, is never going to form a government.

But when push comes to shove, Canadians inevitably settle for reasonable
compromise. The Marc Emery case, in which Canada appears complicit with the
United States in bringing to "justice" Vancouver's most prominent
potrepreneur, may bring this still-peripheral issue to the front burner of
Canadian politics.

That was certainly the aim of Emery's cohorts, who popped up everywhere I
went last week-protesting Justice Minister Irwin Cotler and buttonholing
NDP leader Jack Layton to act on pot reform.

Canadians might not be sure we want legalized pot. But most of us would
consider a long sentence in an American prison outrageously excessive for a
crime most of us consider as serious as a double martini.

What voters will get agitated over, though, is cavalier or arbitrary
government actions they deem excessive. If one of our local celebs (Emery
may be no Rob Feenie, but he is a local character with a certain
notoriety...) ends up in a foreign jail for a crime most Canadians would
decriminalize, it may provide the impetus for criminal reform.

For pot activists, this may be a perfect storm. We are facing civic
elections in a dozen weeks and a federal election soon after. Criminal
matters are federal affairs but, as the existing drug policy indicates, the
city can exercise de facto decriminalization if they talk nice to the feds.
That and the fact that a lot of pot smokers may not appreciate the nuance
of constitutional division of responsibilities means attitudes to pot could
play a role in a close civic election, followed closely by a close federal
election.

All but the most deluded Canadian recognizes that we've lost the battle for
economic independence. Our best hope now may be to eke out a little niche
for ourselves doing things to reassure ourselves we still have the power to
at least nip the heels of America over soft drugs or gay marriage or other
comparatively insignificant issues that nevertheless seem to inflame
American outrage.

If the Emery case, which is at its heart an issue of American
extraterritoriality, drags out long enough to coincide with one or more
elections, Canadians may be moved to show some independent-mindedness. Pot
may prove the sleeper issue of the coming campaigns.