POLICE GROUP MUST MAKE FORWARD STEP

The merger of the Canadian Police Association and National Association
of Professional Police has created an unmistakably powerful new
national police organization. And the 54,000-member Canadian
Professional Police Association is ready to throw its weight around.

The new body's president, Tony Cannavino, made it clear this week that
his group is adamantly against the proposed softening of marijuana
laws in Canada. "The marijuana issue is very important," he said.
"Organized crime is making huge, huge profits. They are selling drugs
to our kids, to our brothers, to our families." None of that is
untrue, but to cancel the changes, which would lessen the offence for
simple possession of pot to something akin to a traffic ticket, is not
the solution. To stiffen the laws for possession is not an option,
either.

The police group's heart is undoubtedly in the right place here -
they're looking to make the streets safer, and feel as long as there's
a high demand for pot, organized crime will flourish thanks to its
interests in trafficking. That's only partly correct, though.

There will always be a high demand for pot - but if marijuana was
legalized, taxed and sold much like alcohol or cigarettes, organized
crime would have to turn its attention elsewhere. Given a legal way to
buy pot, a huge majority of people would turn their backs on
contraband. And the other options organized crime would have - harder
drugs and stolen goods among them - are not nearly as popular with
their customers.

Canada, of course, is stuck between a rock and a hard place on this
issue. There will always be those who believe that, simply because
it's been illegal for so long, that marijuana is more harmful than
cigarettes and alcohol. It isn't. There is also the inevitable U.S.
backlash that would come in a legalization situation. But such a
situation would peak early and then fall back down to Earth as reality
set in. Perhaps the U.S. would even follow Canada's lead when it saw
the decrease in organized crime that would almost certainly follow
legalization.

And what if that's not the result? Turn around and ban it
again.

It's time for attitudes to change once and for all in the debate on
marijuana, and the Canadian Professional Police Association can be
leaders in this regard. It's time such groups re-evaluated their
traditional stance and lobbied for real, progressive change in
Canada's drug laws.