THE DINOSAUR ROARS AGAIN

For a short time last Friday, it appeared as though Solicitor General Rich
Coleman would be the focus of much fury when various Vancouver media
outlets began reporting that his ministry was contemplating a move to
"decriminalize" drunk driving.

However, the "news" was actually information pulled from a months-old
discussion paper on his ministry's website.

(www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/legisla tion/drinking-driving/index.htm)

Included in the discussion paper is a proposal that would allow motorists
who have been given two or more roadside suspensions without being
convicted of a Criminal Code offence to keep driving to and from work -
provided they pay $1,000 to install a breath-activated ignition system
which disables a car if alcohol is detected.

Coleman reacted to the budding controversy by confirming the proposal is
being considered, but said it would not amount to decriminalizing drunk
driving because it doesn't alter any of the existing Criminal Code
provisions that deal with impaired drivers.

While the initial media reports prompted much outrage, recent comments by
Coleman on the topic of marijuana grow-ops should have elicited as much
public scorn.

While fending off the drinking and driving story, Coleman stepped back into
his failed war-on-drugs mantra, vowing to get even tougher with those who
grow marijuana in B.C.

Coleman said almost all crime can be linked to marijuana grow-ops, added
that his government will be looking at legislation that focuses more on the
proceeds of crime and urged Canadians to pressure Ottawa to enact tougher
sentences for pot growers.

Coleman, who refrained from flying in Nancy Reagan to have the former first
lady tell us to "just say no," said he will use "every tool possible" to
shut down the pot trade in B.C.

Well, Coleman can have access to every tool imaginable, but he will never
shut down the pot trade as long as he continues with this obsolete,
prohibitionist thinking; an approach that only makes the pot trade that
much more lucrative.

Coleman is simply the latest in a near-century-long list of public
officials who think they can eliminate marijuana use. And he won't be the
last to leave office wondering why the marijuana trade continues to boom,
unabated. (And to those who argue that decriminalization or legalization
will make pot more accessible? Wrong. Anybody who wants pot now is getting
it. Government regulation will only make it more inaccessible, especially
to youth).

Until failed, Reagan-era, war-on-drugs thinking like Coleman's is retired,
this costly battle will continue.

And we will all continue to be the losers in a war that shouldn't be.