GOVERNMENT'S POT LAW JUST THE START OF SOCIETY'S SLIDE INTO MORAL DECAY

As Pierre Trudeau might say, "Welcome to the 1960s!" Possession of small
amounts of marijuana is no longer a crime in Ontario, according to the
latest court ruling. The provincial Tories say they will wait to see what
the Liberals in Ottawa do before they contest the decision.

Our federal government has been moving toward decriminalizing the
possession of marijuana for some time, but I have yet to hear any rational
argument explaining why.

This is a government that has made a huge deal out of its opposition to
tobacco companies and their legal products. Health concerns and costs are
cited as the reason why smoking should be stamped out all across the land.

They have spent millions of dollars on court cases trying to get their
hands on big tobacco's money (and failed). They have mandated those
gruesome pictures of diseased lungs and brains be included on cigarette
packages. Smoking, they cry, is an evil that must be eliminated once and
for all.

Yet for some reason they have decided, or been persuaded, that marijuana is
OK: a drug that not only includes all the dangers of tobacco, but adds to
them incapacitation and eventual memory loss and brain damage.

As for anyone who thinks that experimentation with marijuana doesn't lead
to harder drugs, just wait a few years and watch the statistics. There will
be a rush of young people in this province trying to get their hands on a
joint now that the government says it's not a criminal offence.

Sadly, these dichotomous government goals are proof that there is no fixed
standard of behaviour that guides policy decisions in Canada's Parliament.
Tobacco bad, marijuana good. Alcohol good, too.

Not only do the Liberals straddle the policy fence on this issue, they
utter stunningly stupid spin-doctoring statements, such as the crime rate
will go down once possession is no longer a criminal offence.

While I am sure a few tokes will bring back a fond remembrance of the '60s,
is there anything from that era, as we look back 40 years later, that we
can be proud of?

Free love and drugs, once hailed as an enlightening influence on society,
were just the beginning of our long slide into moral decay. It all seemed
so innocent back then, didn't it?

Today the frightening statistics on sexually transmitted diseases, families
riven and mangled by divorce, and the untold millions chained by drug
addiction stand as witnesses to man's folly and rebellion.

The consequences of abandoning laws and practices that have been retained
for generations may not be immediately apparent. But make no mistake,
decriminalizing marijuana will have tangible, negative consequences.

Which of our legislators will stand up and take the credit for the ruined
lives in years to come? Will this be Prime Minister Jean Chretien's grand
legacy?

Or is the real problem with our elected representatives the fact that
taking responsibility for their actions is something they rarely consider?