WEED REGULATIONS BAD FOR THE GOVERNMENT'S HEALTH

Is there something wrong, or is it just the weed? Every time the leafy,
budding images of the cannabis sativa plant show up on the television,
there's debate. Should Canada decriminalize pot? If so, how much? For who --
people over nineteen? People over sixteen? And how about medicinal
marijuana?

The debate can quickly become complicated, wordy and sometimes downright
stupid. The parties involved aren't even on the same page. Ottawa's worried
about small concerns like how the public will react, how to keep the buds
away from the border and likely, what all those cops will do when they don't
have sixteen-year-olds to chase around.

The rednecks and the American government are screaming that pot will bring
damnation -- it'll ruin our economy as workers languish over the bong; it'll
de-motivate our children and turn them into arts students; it'll cause
smash-ups on our highways and terror on our streets.

The pro-pot activists say it's not stoners, but the cops who arrest them,
that are the criminals. They see the joint as a constitutional symbol, in
much the same light as some Americans see the gun.

And so we have the ridiculous debate presently before the country. There's
two issues -- medicinal marijuana and the controversy of all controversies,
decriminalization. The government has repeatedly gotten caught with their
pants down on the former issue, losing a court battle to deny sick people
their medicine in a battle that struck down the entire pot law in Ontario by
accident -- oops!

We've seen this all before. When Ottawa went up against abortion with all
its might and lost, they had the option of watering down the law to please
the Supreme Court. Instead they chose to take a graceful exit from the
business of policing women's bodies. Canada has no abortion law -- the
practise is now carried out in clinics and hospitals, rather than in
dangerous isolation.

But this time, the feds have got a different plan. Their half-assed proposal
for decriminalizing weed -- but only if you've got a certain amount, and not
if you're not selling it -- gives politicians a great opportunity to
side-step the media, but makes no sense. The nation's stoners and anti-drug
zealots need to stop bickering, stand up and ask politicians to their faces:
does the government have any business stopping people from smoking pot?

I sincerely doubt most MPs think it does. These are educated people, who
must in some small way realize their after-parliament martini is no
different than a student's after-exam spliff.

But instead of straight answers, we get decriminalization. It's not a
compromise. As long as there are still laws on the books making it any sort
of offence to possess marijuana, the law states plainly that toking is
wrong. That goes for selling, buying and growing, too. The law is about
morality -- it dictates what's wrong, and by omission, what's right. I've
seen no logical moral arguments in the recent debate on the anti-pot side.
People may say society will fall apart because pot's a great moral ill, but
they can't back it up. "The kids will go crazy" is not an argument when
study after study has shown they won't.

If laws don't exist for a good reason, then they make a mockery of other
laws. And there's no good reason not to throw the entire marijuana law out
the door.

There's also no reason the government shouldn't cash in on the immense tax
opportunities. With decriminalization, even the government eventually loses
-- they keep paying millions to convict people of possessing 15 grams or
more. In the meantime, professional dope-growing operations -- which tend to
have deep connections to organized, violent crime -- flourish with money the
government could be taking if they legalized dope and taxed it.

Face it, Jean and company: Canadians like their weed. Joe Canadian or Jill
Newfoundlander is still more likely to go for a brew than a blaze, but
there's a good chance that while they're socializing at the pub, their kids
are scoring dope at the park.

At the end of the day, the only difference is the kids' money goes to
bikers, not health care.