CHRETIEN DEFENDS DECRIMINALIZED POT

WINNIPEG -- It's an unlikely retirement scenario for Prime Minister Jean
Chretien: he's at his lakeside cottage, sipping tea with his wife, Aline --
and smoking a big fat joint. The 69-year-old prime minister has never smoked
marijuana, he says, but he joked in an interview this week he might be
willing to give it a try once it's decriminalized.

Chretien made the joke in an Ottawa interview with the Winnipeg Free
Press, published in yesterday's paper.

Chretien was asked how it felt to have bills for decriminalizing
marijuana and legalizing same-sex marriages as the exclamation points
to his lengthy political career.

"I don't know what is marijuana," Chretien replied.

"Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have
my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand."

On a more serious note, he defended his government's marijuana bill,
which he is trying to pass this fall in what is expected to be his
last parliamentary session.

He said replacing criminal sentences with simple fines is a more
realistic way of punishing marijuana users.

"The decriminalization of marijuana is making normal what is the
practice," Chretien said.

"It is still illegal, but do you think Canadians want their kids, 18
years old or 17, who smoke marijuana once and get caught by the
police, to have a criminal record for the rest of their life?

"What has happened is so illogical that they are not prosecuted
anymore. So let's make the law adjust to the realities. It is still
illegal, but they will pay a fine. It is in synch with the times."

On same-sex marriage, Chretien said he thinks it is better to err on
the side of giving more rights than taking away rights. But he didn't
want to talk about whether that view has caused him problems as a Catholic.

"My grandfather had been refused holy communion because he was a
Liberal organizer," he said. "For us, my mentality, my religion
belongs to me and I will deal personally with that. I am a public
person in a very diverse society, and I don't think I can impose every
limit of my morality on others because I don't want others to impose
their morality on me."

Opposition Leader Stephen Harper has been a harsh critic of the
Liberal government's pot decriminalization bill.

He said it's hard to tell if Chretien is kidding with his remark about
marijuana.

In a speech to Manitoba Liberals yesterday evening, Chretien made no
mention of his marijuana comments.

Instead, he looked back at his 40 years in politics and listed off
what he considers his government's biggest accomplishments -- boosting
some social programs, injecting more money into health care, ratifying
the Kyoto accord on climate change and implementing the national child
benefit for low-income families.

"This government has built the national child benefit, which is the
most significant new social program since medicare," he told the
$400-a-plate party fundraiser.

Chretien also warned this week's Ontario election was a clear sign
people want money spent on government programs, not large tax cuts.

"The people in Ontario were given a choice of further tax cuts at the
expense of public services, or more public services without further
tax cuts. That is what (Dalton) McGuinty did.

"And he won a big majority."