AN 'ASTOUNDING' CAPITULATION

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of the Supreme Court of Canada's
6-3 decision last week to uphold the laws prohibiting possession of
marijuana is the reaction of John Walters, the United States' drug
czar.

Walters was positively abuzz with excitement upon learning that
Canada's top court had decided against ruling that the possession law
was unconstitutional. This is, of course, not new.

When the federal Liberals had drafted a bill to decriminalize simple
possession of pot, Martin Cauchon, then the justice minister, actually
flew to Washington last spring to essentially obtain permission from
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to liberalize marijuana laws here.

That Cauchon presented the pot proposal to a foreign country before
allowing Canada's own House of Commons to view it was astounding. That
the issue didn't generate a wave of outrage among the public is even
more appalling.

When Jean Chretien had introduced the original bill to decriminalize
simple possession of pot - a bill that will be re-introduced next year
in a much watered-down form - Walters and the Bush administration
actually had the audacity to charge that Canada was the only country
in the West to mishandle its drug policy.

Such a charge is laughable, when one considers how corrupt and inept
the U.S. war on drugs really is: The CIA imported cocaine to sell on
American street corners to raise money to fund the Contras in their
guerrilla war against President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government
in Nicaragua in the 1980s. This is not some wild-eyed conspiracy
theory. It is a documented fact presented in Senate hearings in Washington.

In its majority opinion, the Supreme Court of Canada wrote that
"chronic (marijuana) users may suffer serious health problems.
Vulnerable groups are at a particular risk . . ."

If health concerns are reason enough to continue to make criminals out
of people who indulge in a joint or two, can we expect, then, a
challenge to the current law that deems cigarettes, alcohol and sugar
legal?

It is true that the courts exists to interpret, not make, law. And
simple possession will probably be decriminalized sometime next year.

But the revamped bill, heavy on grow-ops and "repeat users," appears
to be another example of capitulating to U.S. pressure to continue
demonizing a drug that is no more harmful that many, many legal drugs.

NDP leader Jack Layton's words, spoken following Cauchon's astonishing
visit to Washington, D.C. last spring, ring as true today: "There goes
Canadian sovereignty up in smoke. Here's the American government
advising on what Canadian policy will be before the House of Commons
even has a look at it.

It's quite astounding.''