NEW DOPE LAW FLAWED, BUT A STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION

Federal laws on marijuana use today are a mess. They are unfairly applied
and widely unenforced.

If and when federal laws are "reformed" under the proposal introduced in
Parliament this week, they will still be a mess.

They will try to send two or three conflicting messages to society. They
will, in fact, continue to reflect our conflicted and deeply polarized
societal attitudes towards marijuana.

They will, however, at the most important level, offer a promise of justice
that is absent today, especially for young Canadians.

The federal government is not pushing forward aggressively on dope reform
laws because it's something Prime Minister Jean Chretien desperately wants
to do before he leaves office. It has been a generation since the Le Dain
Commission recommended decriminalizing marijuana usage -- a recommendation
Chretien has studiously ignored through his many years in Parliament and
three successive majority governments under his leadership.

The government is moving now because it has no choice. Courts in Ontario and
Prince Edward Island have ruled that the laws are not being uniformly or
fairly applied. That constitutes a fundamental breach of justice, and the
judges are tossing the laws out.

The laws are not being universally applied because there's a wide
recognition within the justice system itself that the laws are out of whack.

Many police officers from coast to coast turn a blind eye to simple
possession of small amounts of marijuana wherever they can.

Across Canada on average, there's about one possession charge laid per
police officer every year. Police, prosecutors and many judges recognize
that the consequences of a drug law conviction are grossly out of proportion
to the harm caused by the crime itself. If you are a young person convicted
of toking up, you may wind up with a criminal record that can keep you out
of the United States forever. In an increasingly globalized commercial
world, where the ability to move freely into other nations is vital to
lifetime business success, that's an enormous penalty for a misdemeanour.

We have the great good fortune to live next door to the richest and most
powerful nation on Earth. But it's also one that insists on fighting a
long-lost "war on drugs" that too often serves the interests of lawyers,
criminals, companies that build jails and the people who work in them,
rather than the best interests of average American citizens.

This is not to say marijuana use is benign. It alters senses, distorts
perceptions and users can be extremely dangerous if they get behind the
wheel of a vehicle when stoned.

Marijuana also contains hundreds of chemicals besides the active ingredient
THC, some of which can be very bad for your heart and lungs when smoked.

But smoking tobacco cigarettes or eating high-fat, high-calorie foods can be
very bad for you, too. They are not treated as criminal offences that can
radically and negatively alter a young person's prospects in life.

The vast majority of Canadian parents would hope that their children never
take drugs, never smoke cigarettes, never drink alcohol or have sex when
they are under age, and live their lives as perfect angels.

But the vast majority of Canadian parents today never met those standards
themselves when they were growing up, and still turned out as responsible,
upstanding citizens. They realize that of all those risky behaviours,
sparking up an occasional joint among friends is not only the least harmful,
the consequences of the act are far less damaging than the consequences of
being caught and prosecuted under Canada's current drug laws.

Senior court judges see that too. They can no longer ignore the yawning gap
between the vast majority of marijuana users, who are treated benignly by
the Canadian justice system, and the unfortunate few who are prosecuted
under the full force of federal law. Those judges are -- properly -- now
forcing the government to act.

Legislation introduced in Parliament this week by Justice Minister Martin
Cauchon is flawed. Discount fines for young users and inconsistencies that
will tend to keep the cultivation and sale of marijuana in the hands of
criminal gangs need work.

But the overarching goal of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of
marijuana for private use is absolutely the right direction to go.

- -- Joe McLaughlin