GONE TO POT

THAT Canada's marijuana laws have become anachronistic was starkly
underlined by a "smoke-in" at the legislature on Wednesday.

More than 500 people gathered there -- at the seat of government and lawful
authority in Manitoba -- to listen to music, play a bit of Frisbee, giggle
perhaps more than usual and get high on dope. The sweet and unmistakable
smell of marijuana burning was so great that it permeated the Legislative
Building itself, where some joked about the odour while others seemed to
notice nothing at all.

The police, who were out in considerable force, turned a blind eye -- and a
pinched nose, it would seem -- to what must have amounted to several
hundreds of violations of Criminal Code prohibitions on the possession and
consumption of cannabis, any one of which could have resulted in arrest,
incarceration, prosecution, conviction, punishment and a permanent criminal
record. And yet the police did nothing except mark time. Premier Gary
Doer mused that the tokers should have been arrested, but he did nothing to
ensure the law as written was enforced.

One can only imagine how much turf could have been won in the war on drugs
had police arrested all 500 and followed the evidence trail back to the
dealers and distributors and growers of marijuana. And yet, the
opportunity was allowed to slip away.

Such is the state of affairs in Canada. There is a law against possession
and consumption that few feel obliged to obey, and which the police do not
appear obliged to enforce. But as long as it remains on the books it is a
law all the same, one that police on a different day -- the same police
officers who did nothing in the face of massive civil disobedience
Wednesday -- might choose to enforce with serious consequences to those who
might choose to smoke in numbers small enough so as to be more easily
managed. Enforcement of the Criminal Code should not be
arbitrary. Arbitrary enforcement brings the justice system into disrepute.

If 500 people smoking marijuana on the grounds of the legislature on a
Wednesday in April is deemed to be criminal activity in name only, if it is
not worth prosecuting, then how can it ever again be an offence worth
prosecuting? The law should be made to reflect the current reality. It was
not illegal on Wednesday. It cannot be illegal today and should not be
illegal tomorrow.