N.B. JUDGE OUT OF TOUCH

Let's send Judge Murray Cain a large anchor. Somehow we have to bring
him back to earth.

Cain is the Saint John, N.B., judge who recently sentenced a pregnant
woman named Lynn Wood, 32, to a year in jail. Her crime? Selling
marijuana to an undercover officer.

Cain's action is a good deal more reprehensible than
Wood's.

Admittedly, it's not entirely fair to blame a single judge, however
dim-witted and dusty, for failing to deal brilliantly with a situation
that should make every Canadian ashamed. Our foolish and destructive
laws against the sale and use of drugs, particularly marijuana, cannot
be enforced because vast numbers of Canadians - about 4.5 million in
2004 - routinely flout them. You can't jail 14 per cent of the population.

A marijuana user has a 0.05 per cent chance of being caught. Those who
are caught have a better than 50 per cent chance of being let off with
a warning. If you have certain medical conditions, you have a right to
use marijuana, although government bumbling of the supply of medical
marijuana makes it unlikely you'll ever actually get any legal weed.

Wood runs the Cannabis Cafe in Saint John. In court, she claimed it
served as a "compassion club," providing medical marijuana to patients
who can't get it from the government. Such clubs have become common
from here to California, and the courts have generally dismissed
trafficking charges against the people who run them. At Wood's trial,
witnesses with medical problems testified that the quality of their
lives had indeed been greatly improved by the marijuana they had
bought from her.

But the court also heard evidence that Wood had sold pot to others as
well, including high school students and, alas, a cop.

Look at the pickle in which Judge Cain finds himself. As of November
2004, possessing and using marijuana is perfectly legal for 582
government-approved Canadians - but only if it comes through approved
channels, which are blocked. For all other Canadians, possessing,
using and selling marijuana is flat-out criminal behaviour - but the
law is clearly a joke. An 84-year-old Pierre Berton goes on TV and
shows viewers how to roll a joint. Even former federal justice
minister Martin Cauchon concedes he has smoked up.

On both counts, Wood has unquestionably committed a minor crime. The
solution is obvious: Convict her, fine her, and send her home. That's
the customary way to deal with bootleggers, bookies, madams and other
people who run shady businesses for which there is nevertheless a
robust market. We arrest them occasionally; they budget for the fines
and continue in business. Everything rolls on happily, in a
traditional Canadian state of genteel hypocrisy.

Alas, Judge Cain loses his grip on reality and becomes airborne. He
concludes, correctly, that Wood is likely to reoffend - and because
her cafe is near a school, the prosecutors want her sent to jail.

So the judge, who is now in high orbit, sends her there, presumably to
preserve the health and well-being of innocent children.

What madness is this? Drive around any high school, and you see dozens
of kids smoking tobacco, a viciously addictive drug that kills about
45,000 Canadians every year. By contrast, about 800 people die from
illicit drug use, and not a single one from marijuana.

Selling tobacco to young people is just as illegal as selling them
marijuana. But when was the last time a judge sent a shopkeeper to
jail for illegally selling tobacco to kids?

Cain's decision is bad for Ms. Wood, bad for the child who will be
born in prison in August, bad for medical-marijuana users in Saint
John, and bad for the taxpayer. We already spend $500 million a year
in the loopy battle against marijuana, and will now pay another
$55,000 to keep this entrepreneurial young mother in prison for a year.

When 65 per cent of the population does not believe that pot-smoking
should be a crime - including the Fraser Institute and a Senate
committee - how do these idiotic laws survive?

Lack of leadership. Lack of commitment. And, a major factor, pressure
from the United States. Not from the American people, whose opinions
about decriminalization closely parallel Canadian opinion, but from
the righteous Republicans, who just last week managed to overturn
medical-marijuana laws passed by 10 states. The Bush administration
has openly threatened trade sanctions and border-crossing harassment
if Canada relaxes its drug laws.

The threats are mostly flatulence and flapdoodle. Smuggled drugs
stream across the border in both directions now, and trade and tourism
matter far more to the U.S. than drugs. The U.S. would thunder, but we
needn't expect much lightning.

And, in any case, our government is responsible to the Canadian
people, not to the U.S. drug warriors. It doesn't serve us well by
allowing out-of-touch judges to incarcerate our fellow citizens for
offences that shouldn't even exist.

Author Silver Donald Cameron lives in Cape Breton.