OTTAWA'S DRUG BILL SHOULD GO AHEAD

The federal government should proceed with a sensible plan to stop
treating people who possess small amounts of marijuana as criminals.
This initiative is entirely worthwhile, despite recent information
from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. According to Mountie memos
obtained by the Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act,
the police force suspects that decriminalizing simple possession of
marijuana would increase, not decrease, policing costs.

The government wants to treat the possession of less than 15 grams --
about 15 to 20 marijuana joints -- as a non-criminal offence. If the
new law is passed, police would be able to issue tickets, with fines
set at $150 for adults and $100 for youth. This would make the offence
of possessing marijuana more akin to a speeding ticket than a serious
crime. However, trafficking or possessing large quantities would
remain criminal matters.

The Mounties believe that decriminalizing simple possession of
marijuana could create more work for police if a good number of the
people who receive the tickets challenge their tickets in court. And
some marijuana activists who favour outright legalization have, in
fact, threatened to protest the government's legislation by
challenging the tickets. Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Foundation
for Drug Policy said that for this reason, it is quite likely that
policing costs will rise.

Naturally, citizens have a right to their day in court regardless of
whether the offence they are charged with committing is as major as
murder or as minor as failing to put enough money in a parking meter.
Having said that, challenging this legislation in this way would be
foolish.

So-called marijuana activists are entitled to their view that
decriminalizing is not enough, but this proposed law would be an
improvement over the current law, which permits those who possess any
quantity, large or small, to be classed as criminals and jailed. The
activists should accept that the proposed law is more reasonable than
the status quo and, therefore, supportable.

If the government suspected the proposed law was going to create more
problems than it solves, the cabinet might decide not to bother
supporting the bill at all. Is this what the marijuana activists want?
Even this bill is controversial. Not every Canadian is prepared to
regard possession of marijuana as a non-criminal matter. Furthermore,
the American government may have problems with the bill, even though
President George W. Bush's administration would undoubtedly accept it
as the expression of a democratic institution in a friendly nation.

At the end of the day, the best argument for decriminalization isn't
that it might decrease policing costs but simply that it is the right
thing to do. It makes no sense to turn into criminals those who use
small amounts of a drug that, from a medical perspective, is no more
harmful than tobacco or alcohol. The federal government should proceed
on the course it has taken. And those who want a more liberal response
to marijuana use should acknowledge that the government has made a
fair and bold decision.