CANADA NEEDS COMPREHENSIVE DRUG STRATEGY, CITY CHIEF SAYS

A new survey showing marijuana use on the increase in Canada underlines the
need to set up a well-funded national drug strategy, Brockville's police
chief says.

Barry King, the chairman of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, the
federal government's national agency dealing with addiction, said the
increase in pot use outlined in the survey this week is "regrettable" but
reflects society's more liberal attitude toward cannabis.

A report released Wednesday by Statistics Canada suggests the proportion of
Canadians who admit to indulging in marijuana or hashish use almost doubled
over 13 years, with the highest rates of use among teens.

Three million Canadians, or 12.2 per cent, used cannabis at least once in
the previous year, the federal agency said in its 2002 Canadian Community
Health Survey. In 1989, that figure was 6.5 per cent.

The report comes as Prime Minister Paul Martin remains committed to
decriminalizing marijuana and plans to reintroduce legislation to that end
after Parliament resumes in October.

Parents these days tend to believe cannabis is not as serious a drug as the
harder illicit substances, King said. But such an attitude neglects the
real harm cannabis use can do to a person's health.

"There just isn't sufficient research that tells us what the harm is," said
King.

Federal officials refer to the planned legislative changes as
decriminalization, but that's a bit of a misnomer, King notes.

In fact, under the proposed legislation, pot use would still be illegal,
but penalties for possessing small amounts of it would come from alternate
measures outside the criminal justice system.

The idea stems from the belief, which King endorses, that a young person
need not be stuck with a lifelong criminal record for being caught with
small amounts of cannabis.

Since the decriminalization issue made headlines last year, city police
have more often resorted to issuing cautions to offenders instead of
charges, in keeping with the spirit of the intended legislation, where the
circumstances warrant it, the chief said.

King doubts moves to decriminalize pot will increase cannabis use
significantly, since the Stats Can figures show social attitudes toward the
drug have already loosened.

But that doesn't mean decriminalization should go ahead without a "fully
funded drug strategy" in place at the federal and provincial levels, he said.

That would include education, prevention and treatment programs, said King.
It would also include technology for picking up cannabis on impaired
drivers in roadside breathalyser tests.

"We need these things in place first before we make any of those changes,"
said King, calling them "links in the chain."

The new federal drug strategy put in place earlier this year is just
getting started and needs more time to get going, as well as more
resources, said King.

While alcohol remains the most prevalent problem substance for city police
on the street, marijuana is the most-consumed and most troublesome of the
illegal drugs, King said.

And alcohol comes with controls preventing young people from getting it,
which are nonexistent in the underground cannabis trade.

"The kids can probably get (pot) easier today than they can get a bottle of
beer," said the chief.

There has been an increase in the number of young people with
cannabis-related problems seeking help at the Tri-County Addiction
Services, said its executive director, David North.

The agency, which mainly provides addiction counselling, deals with some
550 substance abuse-related cases a year, said North. About 10 per cent of
those are cannabis related, while the vast majority, some 85 per cent, have
to do with alcohol.

After alcohol, said North, cannabis is the "next most popular drug."

Like King, North is skeptical of the theory that pot is a "gateway drug,"
the first step in a natural progression to harder and more dangerous
substances such as heroin or crack.

"Most people these days have had some contact with marijuana," said North,
adding the prevalence of such experimentation has not led to a large number
of "heroin addicts lying on the streets of Brockville."

Rather than focusing on whether or not to decriminalize marijuana, and what
quantity should be the limit, society would be better off trying to figure
out ways of providing people, especially young people, with more ways of
getting naturally high, through such things as creative or artistic
expression or entertainment, North believes.

Young people are constantly telling society they lack things to do or
places to "hang out," said North, yet public debate focuses on such matters
as where they can and cannot use skateboards.

"As we slowly take away their wheels, guess what they're going to do
instead?" said North.