WHO'S PARANOID?

Time The Feds Got Off The Pot

Stockwell Day tried it. The former Justice Minister Martin Cauchon
used it. I would bet that well over 50 percent of the members of the
House of Commons have tried it.

The late Canadian icon Pierre Berton smoked it regularly for the last
45 years. He said it helped him to relax. Last October, Berton
appeared on CBC's satire show, Rick Mercer's Monday Report, offering
tips on how to roll it and actually recommended his book, The National
Dream, as an excellent rolling surface. He had been a recreational
user since the 1960s, saying he'd reached a stage in his life where he
didn't give a damn what he said or what people thought.

Pierre Berton lived until his 84th year. He made Canadian history
alive and exciting, most probably because of what he smoked for over
half his life. And while he smoked it, he produced 15,000 words a day,
including a 1,200-word daily column.

I'm talking, of course, about marijuana, a.k.a. pot, grass, weed,
Mary-Jane, reefer, Aunt Mary, Acapulco gold, kif, ganja, Maui wowie.
There are over 200 terms of endearment for marijuana.

It is without a doubt, the most often used illegal drug in Canada and
has been for decades. A recent federal government survey shows that
the number of Canadians using pot has doubled over the last 10 years.
It shows that most Canadians support the legalization of marijuana.

Moses Znaimer, has co-founded a research company to invent medicines
made with marijuana. For many people, marijuana is the only thing that
eases the pain. It helps cancer patients. It can stop seizures.

In strict medical terms, marijuana is far safer than many foods we
commonly eat. Cigarettes kill. Marijuana doesn't. And by the way,
there is not a single study that says second-hand marijuana smoke
causes cancer.

On May 29, 1969, the federal government formed a Commission of Inquiry
into the Non-Medical use of Drugs. It is commonly referred to as the
LeDain Report. It was a huge undertaking and all relevant data and
research written up to that time was studied. Public inquiries were
held all across Canada.

The real purpose of the study was to answer the question: "Why should
cannabis be treated so harshly compared to tobacco and alcohol?" In
the very early 1970s we got our answer. The LeDain Commission told
Canada it favoured the abolition of the crimes of simple possession
and cultivation for personal use of pot. The commission found cannabis
is not a narcotic, that no deaths due directly to smoking or eating
cannabis have been documented, that there is no scientific evidence
that cannabis itself is responsible for the commission of other forms
of criminal behaviour and that physical dependence on cannabis has
never been demonstrated.

In other words, by the early 1970s, Canada knew that marijuana was not
a "demon weed".

The report was met by a wall of silence. Our government completely
ignored it. Instead, they appointed LeDain to the Federal Court of
Appeal and then to the Supreme Court of Canada and never mentioned his
name again.

Why is it still taboo? Because the arguments against legalizing it
unequivocally are based on hearsay, myth and ill-informed opinion
about the effects of the drug. People express fear for our children.
We have never left the age of "Reefer Madness".

As an example, very recently the Canadian Council of Chief Executives,
which represents 150 major or multi-national corporations, stated
(undoubtedly while they were drunk on alcohol) that a federal bill to
decriminalize pot could increase injuries, absenteeism and poor job
performance and poor productivity.

In their drunken state, they forgot that alcohol is legal, but I don't
see drinking on the job as a national problem. The very few people who
drink on the job tend to lose their jobs. As far as I can tell,
Canadians like to work, like to make a salary and aren't going to
jeopardize their jobs.

Most people think that the anti-marijuana laws are stupid and are
there to be ignored. In my view, the anti-marijuana laws create
resentment and disrespect for law and law enforcement in general. We
seem to be stuck in the Dark Ages. The anti-marijuana laws are immoral
in principle and unworkable in fact. The comedian Bill Maher says the
worst thing about marijuana is that it makes you eat cookie dough. In
other words, it is harmless.

It's time, in fact it's way overdue, that pot be treated the same as
alcohol and tobacco. Even if it isn't good for children, it is no
argument to say the government, therefore, should take it away from
adults. We don't do that with liquor. Why can't we just say, "Kids,
this is not for you." The state should leave adults alone to smoke
pot.

I don't use it. Never will. But I do love cookie dough. The law making
pot's possession or use illegal is dead wrong. It's time to implement
a system to regulate pot's production, distribution and consumption.
In other words, it's time for the government to get off the pot.

- - Edward L. Greenspan, Q. C., is with the law firm of Greenspan, White. A
Criminal Mind: The Life and Times of Edward Greenspan, the season premier
of Life and Times will air on CBC television Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. Comments can
be sent to writersgroup@ospreymedia.ca.