CANADA: POT MISINFORMATION

Re: Softer Marijuana Law Worries Partsmakers, Dec. 11.

Windsor-based auto parts makers fearing they will be subject to some sort
of draconian quarantine should Canada soften its marijuana laws might
assuage their fears with a four-hour drive to the east. There, they will
find the state of New York, which for well over two decades has had
marijuana laws considerably more liberal than the law proposed by the
Canadian government.

New York stopped jailing marijuana users in the 1970s, and maintains fines
for marijuana possession lower than those now being contemplated in Canada.
And yet New York's borders are not sealed off for fear that some New York
cannabis will be smuggled into Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont -- or
Ontario, for that matter. Indeed, New York actually has lower rates of
youth and adult marijuana use than nearly all of its neighbouring U.S. states.

U.S. government officials, desperate not to be the last regime fighting a
futile war against marijuana users, are spreading fear and misinformation
as rapidly as they can. Do what sensible Americans do: ignore them.

Bruce Mirken

Director of Communications, Marijuana Policy Project

Washington, D.C.