WEED WAR

Part 3

Critics of current public policy toward marijuana say it is doomed to
fail, just as prohibition did.

Canada's federal government says it has no plans to de-criminalize
pot. Meanwhile, thousands of Canadians are saddled with a criminal
record each year just for being convicted of possession of a joint.

To Matt Mernagh, the events that followed a pro-cannabis rally at
Hamilton city hall in April of last year symbolize what marijuana
advocates consider the wasteful -- and downright silly -- war against cannabis.

The 33-year-old St. Catharines resident, who suffers osteoarthritis
and smokes pot partly to ease the pain, was charged by police with
trafficking after they said he sold a joint and a cookie --
presumably laced with a cannaboid product such as hash -- to a female
undercover officer at the rally.

As the case slowly dragged through the judicial system, Mernagh said
it was astounding to know the cookie in question had been sent to a
special lab in Ottawa for analysis.

"Here we have a federal lab testing the DNA of rapists and murderers,
and they're testing a cookie," he said.

The charges were eventually withdrawn this spring, but to Mernagh and
supporters the case reflects a badly flawed public policy in Canada
of criminalizing a product that many Canadians are going to get, one
way or another. That, they insist, is why illegal marijuana grow-ops
that police and firefighters say are a danger to them and to the
public in general are flourishing.

The battle to stop people from getting their hands on pot is
prohibition all over again, they say. And like the ban on the
production and distribution of alcohol in the United States in the
early part of the last century, it is fuelling organized crime and it
is destined to fail, say critics.

Pot smokers aren't the only ones who consider current laws that can
see someone jailed and fined for simple possession unworkable.

A Canadian Senate committee explored the issue in 2002 and found that
nearly a third of the justice system is tied up with cannabis,
estimating it costs about $300 million annually to enforce cannabis
laws. Each year, at least 20,000 Canadians are arrested for cannabis
possession, but that does little to curb public demand for the
product: the Senate committee said three million Canadians used
cannabis in the previous year, and about 100,000 use it on a daily basis.

"It is clear that if the aim of public policy is to diminish
consumption and supply of drugs, specifically cannabis, all signs
indicate complete failure," the committee's report said.

Don't fool yourself into thinking only hippies or unelected senators
want to see pot decriminalized. The Fraser Institute, a B.C.-based
economic think-tank, is about as conservative as you can get in
Canada. But even the Fraser Institute says it's time to decriminalize pot.

In a 2004 study commissioned by the institute, Stephen Easton, an
economics professor at Simon Fraser University, said the prohibition
on marijuana cannot be sustained because there are simply too many
Canadians who ignore the law.

"To anyone with even a passing acquaintance with modern history, it
is apparent that we are reliving the experience of alcohol
prohibition in the early years of last century," Easton wrote.

Booze was banned in Ontario from 1917-1927, and in the United States
from 1920 to 1933, spurring the growth of speakeasies and stills, and
making mobsters such as Al Capone and his ilk rich by dominating
alcohol distribution.

The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police estimates as much as 85
per cent of marijuana grow-ops are operated by organized crime,
generating vast amounts of money. A small-scale grow-op with 200
plants can easily generate $200,000 -- tax free -- in a year.

In three separate grow-op raids last Thursday, Niagara Regional
Police said they busted operations with marijuana plants with a
street value of an estimated $1 million.

Easton said Canada is missing out on a tax goldmine. It costs about
$1.50 to produce a joint, which can sell on the street for close to
$9, he said. Easton's number crunching calculated Canada could reap
upwards of $2 billion a year in taxes from the production of legal,
taxable marijuana.

The Simon Fraser professor notes that when prohibition was replaced
with the regulated sale of legal liquor, large, sophisticated
producers squeezed out the ma and pa stills.

St. Catharines' Mernagh said history should teach us the same will
happen with grow-ops operated by organized crime.

His idea is for the Cannabis Control Board of Ontario, in which pot
is regulated much as alcohol is at the LCBO and kept out of the hands
of minors.

"They've done a great job regulating alcohol and tobacco," he said.
"The drug dealer doesn't care who he's selling to, as long as he sells it.

"We'll make a lot of money on the sale of marijuana and we'd
eliminate grow-ops. The police haven't come up with a better alternative."

Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced in 2003 that
his government was poised to introduce legislation to decriminalize
simple possession of marijuana. While not going as far as to legalize
it, the change would have meant offenders only received a penalty
along the lines of a traffic ticket rather than a criminal conviction.

"Don't start to smoke yet," Chretien said at the time.

That was good advice. Possession remains a crime in Canada, and
that's not soon to change -- not on Rob Nicholson's watch.

Nicholson, Canada's Conservative justice minister and MP for Niagara
Fall riding, said "we have no plans and no intention to decriminalize
marijuana. This is just something that society doesn't need."

The recent federal budget included a new national anti-drug strategy
with $64 million over two years to crack down on gangs, combat
illicit drug production such as grow-ops and methamphetamine labs,
prevent illicit drug use and treat illicit drug dependency.

The problem at present, said Nicholson, is that the penalties for
growing and trafficking cannabis products aren't tough enough. He
plans to change that soon by introducing legislation to put teeth
into the fight against drugs, such as mandatory sentences for drug
dealers and grow-op operators.

"I want the message to be very clear," he said. "If somebody is in
the business of grow-ops, we take this very seriously. (They're) not
going to like what we're going to come out with.

"We're looking at some serious changes."

Marc Emery, publisher of B.C.-based Cannabis Culture magazine, argues
that since cannabis is a naturally growing product, adults who choose
to smoke or injest it shouldn't be criminalized.

All current laws do is push marijuana on to the black market, where
prices are artificially high -- meaning many young people turn to
cheaper, harmful ways to get high such as sniffing glue or solvents,
or crystal-meth, he said.

"Prohibitions of every kind do not work," said Emery. "They are
counter-productive.

"If we legalize drugs, prostitution (and) gambling, we can control
the industries through transparency and regulation."

Mernagh said much of the marijuana hitting the streets is a less
refined product cranked out as fast as possible at grow-ops. But he
said with people as diverse as doctors and lawyers to corporate
executives counting themselves among Canadians to smoke marijuana,
there is an untapped market out there for higher-end marijuana with a
smoother taste and smell, mirroring higher-end wines Ontarians are
increasingly turning to such as Vintners Quality Alliance vintages.

He figures Niagara, already known for its multimillion-dollar floral
greenhouse and winery industries, could become known for a third
agri-tourism attraction: legal marijuana greenhouses.

"The police have failed in their philosophy" to criminalize
marijuana, he said. "They keep trying the same thing and it's only
getting worse. Were sort of in an untenable situation: we can't win."

When the day comes when pot becomes legal -- and Mernagh believes it
will -- he'll be first in line to become a legal grower.

"I'd go out and get a greenhouse in Niagara and I'd register and I'd
grow it and sell it."

Until that day comes, Niagara Regional Police Chief Wendy Southall
said her force won't be turning a blind eye to pot possession.

"We will do what is our responsibility," she said. "We will enforce
the laws of our province and the federal government."