ONE TOUGH WEED TO CONTROL

Pot. You don't have to smoke it to addle your brain. Just trying to
make sense of the whole issue is enough to make your head spin.

The federal justice minister is about to table a bill decriminalizing
simple possession of marijuana. If caught with 15 grams or less of pot
under the new law, you'd get a ticket, like a parking fine.

So, does that mean personal marijuana use is OK now, or not? The
government won't send Joe Stoner to jail for a joint anymore, it'll
just take his money.

And that confusing message is nothing compared to the entire
legalization vs. decriminalization vs. criminalization debate.

The make-it-legal liberals claim we ought to have the freedom to
inhale whatever we please. And they point out that the outrageously
lucrative and increasingly violent illegal pot trade can be ended
virtually overnight by legalizing weed. If anyone can grow it in their
garden, and it becomes an agricultural crop like any other, the bottom
falls out of the price, and the criminals lose interest.

That sounds good, particularly in Surrey, where up to 4,500 illegal
pot grow ops are increasingly responsible for random shootings,
mistaken-identity home invasions and beatings, and house fires.

The hitch in that approach, however, is the fact that there exists
directly on the other side of the border, a major illicit market for
B.C. bud.

American authorities have made it clear they have no intention of
throttling back on their insanely expensive and ineffective war on
drugs, including marijuana, and they're not pleased at all with
Canada's decriminalization move. This despite the fact that the
consequences of pot possession in the States varies from tickets to
guaranteed jail time.

The law hasn't reduced demand for "the herb" at all. So that means
crime will still pay for those who smuggle marijuana into the U.S. And
you thought border line-ups were long now.

On the other side of the fence are the lock-'em-up types, - Surrey's
mayor and a local MP among them - who want more enforcement, and
stiffer sentences for pot growers and distributors.

That talk always sounds good, but it is money that does the biggest
talking here. Billions and billions of dollars. That kind of cash will
always overcome the best efforts of police officers, and the toughest
courts.

Proving that beyond any doubt are our American neighbours - who have
thrown vast sums of taxpayers' funds at the war on drugs, and thrown
tens of thousands of people into prison in the process.

Unfortunately, U.S. authorities can't or won't admit the futility of
the fight. While they fume and fuss over Canada's decriminalization
plans, their laws, and ironically, their demand for our pot, are
significant contributors to the problem.

It's enough to drive you to drink.