POT DEBATE KEPT OFF CONVENTION FLOOR

Won't Become Official Liberal Policy

OTTAWA -- Liberals side-stepped an awkward marijuana showdown at their
national convention yesterday while giving a slam-dunk endorsement of gay
marriage and committing to reform the country's prostitution ban. An
emotionally charged debate over federal marijuana laws, set against a
backdrop of four dead Mounties, was contained within a raucous committee
room and never made it to the party's main convention floor.

Almost 600 Liberal delegates at a justice workshop simultaneously endorsed
resolutions that would see pot legalized, taxed and federally regulated --
while also voting to impose mandatory minimum sentences on convicted grow
operators.

But neither resolution was debated by the full convention plenary, meaning
neither will become official party policy this weekend.

The justice workshop, which voted down a motion on maintaining the
traditional definition of marriage, ended up sending a resolution to the
main convention floor seeking a review of Canada's solicitation laws.

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said legalizing pot and prostitution
might have been expected from a justice forum heavily dotted with members
of the Liberal youth wing.

"I would be amazed if young Liberals didn't come to a convention like this
and push the envelope a little bit," McLellan told reporters after dust
finally settled on the two-hour donnybrook. But what happens at convention
doesn't tie the government's hand.

MP Dan McTeague called the social debates "bewildering and mind-boggling.

"There are opinions out there on the floor being passed that haven't been
tested in main street," said the Toronto-area MP. "I don't think any of
them are sellers on the doorstep.

"How would you be able to distinguish between Liberals and the NDP in the
next election?"

The contentious pot debate was immediately framed in the tragedy of four
RCMP officers gunned down Thursday during a raid on an Alberta farm that
was found to contain a small grow operation.

"We knew that something drastic was going to happen and we just didn't know
when," B.C. delegate Ginny Hasselfield said as she proposed the grow op
sentencing resolution. Her assertion drew loud groans from the back of the
packed room.

"Do we want a U.S. war-on-drugs approach to this problem? Or will we sit
down and consider a Liberal solution?" responded one delegate to loud cheers.

The mandatory sentence resolution was adopted, nonetheless.

When it came time for the legalization debate, matters got more heated.

Garth Goodhew, a delegate from North Bay, Ont., listed international
anti-drug efforts and health concerns for rejecting legalization, and
warned that the resolution might be considered in bad taste.

"Four young Canadians were killed two days ago!" Goodhew shouted before
being drowned out by a huge wave of jeers.

When another delegate cited tobacco smoking cancer deaths in his family, he
was loudly advised to "Eat brownies!"

Several speakers in favour of legalization compared the current drug wars
to the Prohibition era, when organized criminals fought police in the
streets over the booze trade.