THAT MARIJUANA LAW

Two years ago, Canada was on the brink of decriminalizing possession
of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. This would have been
a sensible reform, in keeping with shifting public attitudes and a
growing consensus that there is no sense saddling otherwise
law-abiding Canadians with criminal records for smoking pot. But now
the country is headed the other way.

With national statistics to be released next week, preliminary data
compiled by The Canadian Press suggest that arrests for pot
possession rose dramatically in 2006. While Montreal and Calgary
reported slight decreases, such arrests increased between 20 and 50
per cent in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax. After a
significant decline in possession charges earlier this decade - from
nearly 27,000 in 2002 to fewer than 19,000 in each of the following
three years - they appear to be back to their previous levels.

For those who believe these arrests are a waste of police resources,
it is tempting to blame the officers themselves. Rather than arrest
teenagers, why not put the time and effort into targeting those
higher up in the drug trade? But it is the people who make the laws
who appear to be setting the tone, not those who enforce it. Terry
McLaren, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police,
says forces were less inclined to lay possession charges after Jean
Chretien's Liberal government tabled decriminalization legislation in
2003. After Stephen Harper's Conservatives abandoned the bill, police
went back to enforcing the law more rigorously.

If recreational marijuana use is a problem, this is not the solution.
The 2007 World Drug Report, released yesterday by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, suggests that 16.8 per cent of Canadians
between 15 and 64 used marijuana or another cannabis product in 2006
- - more than in any other industrialized country. It is evident both
that intensified enforcement serves as little deterrent and that the
law is still being applied arbitrarily, with statistics showing that
young people are singled out while other users are spared.

If Mr. Harper's aim is to crack down on the drug trade, he should
revive decriminalization legislation and free police to pursue the
real criminals.