LEGALIZE POT, FOCUS SIGHTS ON CRYSTAL METH

Federal officials are signaling the danger of methamphetamine by raising
penalties for possession, production and trafficking to the same level as
for cocaine and heroin. Crystal meth needs to be taken seriously, but until
Ottawa completely overhauls its approach to drugs it's just so much sound
and fury, signifying nothing.

Announcing the sentence for infractions involving this dangerous drug is
rising to life imprisonment from 10 years may play well in the media, but
it will be laughed off the street. Neither Justice Minister Irwin Cotler
nor Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh could point to any case in which someone
was convicted to even 10 years, and it's highly unlikely judges will start
putting pushers in jail for life.

Crystal meth deserves the same level of concern as cocaine and heroin, but
as some critics quickly observed, "How's that working for you?" Point made.
Coke and heroin continue to devastate individuals, families and communities
despite the harsh potential penalties that crystal meth now shares.

Such drivel is only an illusion of action, which officials apparently hope
will take them off the hook for doing anything real to stop the scourge.

What Canada needs is an all-out assault against such drugs on a broad
front. Part of that involves legalizing marijuana so scarce police
resources aren't squandered on pipsqueak diversions while the real killers
escape largely unmolested.

Dispensing pot through government agencies such as the LCBO would mean it
was no longer a gateway drug. The millions of Canadians who smoke weed
currently have nowhere to get it but from criminals, who also push crystal
meth and other hard drugs or can quickly advise where to get it.

With licensing fees, legalized marijuana would move billions of dollars out
of the pockets of criminals and into government coffers. That would create
resources for more policing of hard drugs without making taxpayers dig deeper.

The windfall would also allow greater funding of anti-addiction and other
social programs, which Dosanjh readily concedes are lacking.

More resources could go to better educating the public about the dangers of
crystal meth. Currently, such campaigns are compromised because of a
credibility gap -- users see marijuana dangers as being over-hyped, so
anything said about crystal meth is regarded as similarly bogus.

The arguments for legalizing pot to better fight hard drugs are so strong
that Ottawa's failure to move in that direction seems to be due to outside
pressure. Either it's organized crime, hoping to keep pot illegal to keep
profits flowing, or it's police agencies -- domestic or American -- nervous
that their budgets will be slashed if this bogeyman is removed.