U.S. DECISION WILL CHILL CANADIAN POT PLANS

Thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the federal Liberals' marijuana
plans may have just gone up in smoke.

Earlier this year at the Liberal Party's policy convention, a
resolution brought forth by the Alberta Young Liberals proposed making
marijuana lawful and taxing its sale. The legalization of marijuana
would see the drug sold over the counter like alcohol or tobacco, and
goes far beyond the current proposal for decriminalization being
debated by Parliament.

Millions of dollars worth of marijuana from provinces such as B.C.
already finds its way into the much more lucrative American pot market
each year. With the world's longest undefended border separating
Canada from its neighbour to the South, legalization of marijuana
would almost certainly lead to titanic increases in the quantity of
Canadian weed being smuggled into the U.S.

On Tuesday of this week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to permit the
state-sanctioned use of marijuana for medical purposes, reinforcing
America's refusal to join Canada in allowing the drug's use for pain
relief or other medicinal purposes. In a 6-3 ruling, the court
confirmed that federal authorities had the right to prosecute patients
cultivating or possessing marijuana in California or any of the other
nine states who have legalized the plant's use in restricted medicinal
circumstances.

The case was a tug of war between a state's domestic drug laws (such
as the one in California allowing marijuana use for limited medicinal
purposes) and federal laws banning marijuana as a dangerous drug.

The Supreme Court found that federal laws held greater sway in the
matter than state laws, giving federal authorities the go ahead to
prosecute all marijuana users.

The extent to which our economic prosperity depends on free flowing
exports to the United States suggests that issues such as the
legalization of marijuana need to be examined in a practical manner.
The decriminalizing of marijuana is almost certainly in the interests
of all Canadians (teenagers don't deserve criminal records for getting
high in their parents' basement) and a similar effort at
decriminalization is already prevalent in many American states.
Legalization however, is another matter entirely.

Legalization of marijuana is bad for Canadians and bad for our already
tenuous relationship with our largest customer, America.

I'm not suggesting American favours be purchased by allowing the U.S.
to dictate Canadian domestic policy, but marijuana is, in my mind,
correctly labelled a dangerous drug.

Like any Canadian in my age group (19-25) I have friends who use
marijuana, and know of many professors and respected professionals who
use it to no adverse effect. But I also have friends whose lives have
been unquestionably ruined by habitual and purportedly "harmless"
marijuana use -- friends who have transformed from bright, articulate,
and energetic young adults to lazy burnouts barely able to recount
their whereabouts the night before.

According to the Alberta wing of the Liberal Party, taxed marijuana
sales would bring around $3 billion in additional revenue to
provincial and federal coffers each year, but how much, I wonder,
would its use cost us?

How many young people would have their lives ruined by habitual use of
the drug, or their academic lives retarded? The mathematics involved
in calculating tax gains are simple, but those involved in calculating
the unseen costs of drug addiction are more complex and seldom computed.

Legalizing marijuana is bad domestic drug policy that would do nothing
more than antagonize our neighbours and have unforeseen effects on our
citizens. Until more conclusive studies are done regarding the safety
of marijuana and its long-0term effects on memory, its sale over the
counter would be irresponsible and foolhardy. Our society does not
need another addition to its already lengthy roster of intoxicants.