GET A HANDLE ON POT

Editorials - Thursday's idiotic marijuana-smoking party outside Toronto
police headquarters demonstrated more than the foolishness of some
individuals -- it pointed clearly to the need for government to do more
than just decriminalize.

As with many other substances, marijuana is going to have to be regulated
and controlled. If legislators are particularly smart, they'll go one
better -- sell and tax pot, and use the proceeds to fund increased costs of
regulation.

Police did nothing about the dozens of people who openly smoked the drug on
police property, perhaps using the occasion for a passive-aggressive
demonstration of their own. Maybe the frustrated officers were saying to
proponents of decriminalization: you wanted it, now you've got it.

Toronto police could have used the same approach as their counterparts in
Sault Ste. Marie and many other locations have adopted. They could have
laid trafficking charges against anyone observed to be sharing marijuana,
and they could have taken the names and the drug supply of all those who
possessed a small amount, leaving open the option of charging them later.

But it would have been a huge waste of resources, considering the confusion
of current Canadian marijuana rules.

Ottawa has to put this matter on the front burner. Police and the public
need immediate clarification and controls.

If the downtown party had involved beer instead of reefers, police would
have broken it up immediately because we have clear restrictions about
places alcohol can be consumed. Similar rules could easily apply for marijuana.

Ditto for age restrictions. We do it already for alcohol and tobacco, and
defining underage toking would be easy.

A big concern is impaired driving. Police can already administer roadside
physical tests of co-ordination to gauge impairment, but that leaves a lot
to subjective opinion.

If sufficient studies don't already show how much marijuana intoxication
affects drivers' reflexes and judgment, they have to be commissioned
immediately. We also need a simple roadside THC test that mirrors the
breathalyser.

Of course, all bans on smoking in public buildings should apply to
marijuana as they do tobacco. Many Canadians who support more liberal pot
laws have no desire to smoke it themselves -- not even second-hand.

Proposed decriminalization legislation tries to battle one of the worst
marijuana problems, trafficking and its link to other drugs and organized
crime, by imposing stiffer penalties. A method that would probably do the
job better -- and certainly at less net cost to the taxpayer -- would be to
put production and distribution under government control.

Marijuana could be sold in LCBO stores or their equivalent, with identical
restrictions on underage procurement.

Moonshine is a health hazard in addition to being illegal, and marijuana
bought on the street could similarly contain poisons or more-worrisome
psychoactive substances. Government control would reduce health and safety
concerns.

The huge profits that are now going to drug czars would become government
revenues. We would pummel a social scourge and feed the public treasury:
there would be enough to police drugs, and undoubtedly a lot left over.