CANNABIS COUNTRY

Canada Is a World Leader in Pot Use. Should Our Laws Change to Reflect
National Attitudes?

Should marijuana be decriminalized? Licia Corbella and Michael Coren
examine the issue from both sides.

CORBELLA: If Albert Einstein is right, that "insanity is doing the
same thing over and over again and expecting different results," then
it's safe to say Canada's policy on marijuana use is crazy. Recent
news reports show that Canadians are toking up more than ever even as
police are laying an increasing number of charges against those who
possess pot. Indeed, according to the United Nations World Drug Report
2007, Canadians hold the dubious distinction of being the biggest
potheads on the planet. It's time to try something new. It's time for
decriminalization or perhaps even legalization.

COREN: Quite so. Theft, rape and assault are also apparently
unstoppable, so we might as well decriminalize or legalize them as
well. Just because something is common does not mean it is acceptable.
Individuals who use this stuff privately are seldom touched. It's the
dealers who are arrested and quite rightly too.

CORBELLA: Yeah, and maybe if we didn't waste billions of dollars of
police, court and prison resources persecuting, prosecuting and
sometimes even jailing people who possess a small amount of marijuana
then the police might be able to actually catch more of those thieves,
rapists and violent people. How am I served by a tax-funded police
officer busting someone found with a bit of pot, spending hours
processing the charge and then having to appear in court in front of a
judge, Crown attorney, defence attorney, court clerk, court reporter
and guard? Doesn't it make more sense to just hand the person a ticket?

COREN: Most of this is urban myth. The police could spend all day
arresting people on minor drug charges if they so desired. The vast
majority of those arrested are either dealers or people booked for
multiples offences. It really is extraordinary that a country so
obsessed with controlling people's lives wants to abandon
responsibility when it comes to drug use.

CORBELLA: Michael, the smoke is really getting in your eyes. That
police could spend all day arresting people on minor drug charges, but
often look away, proves society no longer sees marijuana as an evil
weed that needs controlling. Police should charge drug dealers with
trafficking, not possession. No wonder our courts are so backlogged
and our jails so full they let pedophiles out after four months for
serious offences. Just look at Peter Whitmore. He once got 16 months
for abducting and raping four kids. By the way, the British Medical
Association's journal, The Lancet declared: "The smoking of cannabis,
even long term, is not harmful to health" and went on to say that
alcohol consumption is far, far worse.

COREN: Yes, the law is often too soft. But that's like comparing a
shape to a colour. There is no logical connection. Look, we have no
idea about the long-term effects of cannabis -- remember, tobacco was
recommended by doctors not so long ago. Plus it is frequently a
gateway drug into harder narcotics. It's also a way of escaping
reality and we should ask some hard questions about the society we
want to create. By removing legal stigma we encourage, whether you
like it or not.

CORBELLA: Yes, but is it marijuana or the criminalization of it that
makes it a gateway? The reason it's a gateway drug is because those
who sell it tend to also sell other harder drugs. The experience in
the Netherlands, where people can legally purchase cannabis in cafes
has shown fewer people are passing through the "gateway" to harder,
damaging drugs now than before it was legal.

COREN: There is ample evidence, anecdotal and otherwise, that in many
cases it most certainly is a gateway drug. Also, there is increasing
proof of the link between long-term cannabis use and schizophrenia, as
well as other mental illness. Look, alcohol can be abused. But the
sheer use of cannabis is abuse. Would you, for example, take a ride
from a driver who was smoking up?

CORBELLA: No, but if I was forced to choose between someone who had a
few drinks or smoked a joint I'd choose the pot smoker, since drunks
tend to feel uninhibited and speed, whereas tokers tend to get more
introspective and careful. I'm not in favour of drug use at all, but
criminalizing the smoking of a plant that does little harm --
certainly much less harm than drinking -- is an approach that is not
serving society well. Many renowned economists, including Nobel Prize
winners, recommend legalizing this rather benign (and sometimes
beneficial and medicinal) plant. A Canadian Senate Committee has made
the same recommendation and yet arrests are up, use is up and profits
for criminals are up. It's insane!

COREN: Many renowned people recommend all sorts of silly things. The
point is that alcohol can be used responsibly, whereas any use of
cannabis makes one incapable. Nor did you respond to my argument --
backed by an increasing number of studies -- that cannabis may indeed
be dangerous. The other issue is at the moment we have a workable law
regarding this subject. To open up the box at this point could be a
disaster. Why on Earth would we risk so much because zealots and drug
users are making loud noises?

CORBELLA: Actually, I have met dozens of people with MS and those who
suffer from severe epileptic seizures who ingest marijuana and not
only does it not make them "incapable" it has given them back their
lives, freeing them from wheelchairs, pain and their homes. Recently,
Grant Krieger, one of Canada's foremost minstrels for medicinal
marijuana, was thrown in jail in Calgary for selling this miracle
medicine to a man dying from cancer. A sickening use of my hard-earned
tax dollars.

COREN: A minstrel for medicinal marijuana! My goodness, you couldn't
make it up. Look, only an extremist would prevent the use of medicinal
cannabis, but that isn't what we're discussing. On July 26 a report
was issued in the United Kingdom that lists deaths related to
marijuana and claims with great authority that smoking just one joint
raises the chance of mental illness by 40%. This isn't propaganda;
this is medical research. We have Third World debt, mass poverty and
all a bunch of North American hippies care about is changing the law
so they can have irresponsible fun more easily.

CORBELLA: Well, actually, I did make that up and I'm happy to hear
you're not in favour of throwing people in jail for possessing the
only medicine that works for them. Frankly, we would have a lot more
time and money to help the poor, both here and abroad, if we didn't
squander billions of dollars fighting marijuana and jailing those who
use it. We'd have billions more if we legalized it and taxed it. And,
guess what? Studies seem to indicate if we did that, illicit drug use
- -- particularly of the hard stuff -- would go down. Now there's an
idea that's sane.

COREN: We could also legalize and tax prostitution, make a profit on
abortion, put pornography in government hands. No, some things are
more important than money. If we go too far now we may be picking up
the broken pieces within a generation. Just because something is
fashionable or tempting does not make it correct. The law works and is
moderate and sensible. Don't let Canada become a model for decay and
failure. Hey, where there's smoke there's fire -- if you know what I
mean?