WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN SMOKING IN OTTAWA?

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon should fire up a doobie and give his
proposed new pot legislation a long, mellow think. Then bogart it. The
bill, I mean.

As is so often the case when politicians try to fix stuff, especially stuff
that isn't hanging fire and doesn't require urgent attention, the federal
Liberals have completely cocked it up, devising a jerry-rigged piece of law
so illogical in design and contradictory in intent that it defies common sense.

No faction in the public debate — if such a debate even exists — has been
pleased by the legislation as tabled, which is what happens when
politicians try to suck and blow at the same time.

The new drug strategy aims to dissuade Canadians, particularly youths, from
using marijuana while simultaneously making it easier to do so;
decriminalizes possession of small quantities of cannabis but allows for a
whopping huge fine for growing just one itty-bitty marijuana plant, which
surely comes as welcome news to traffickers worried about losing their
clientele to patio gardeners; and considerately tapers possession fines to
suit a teenager's allowance while extracting larger costs from adults,
which clearly discriminates based on age. (So, what, get your kids to hold
on to your stash?)

How any of this would render the country's drug laws — soft drugs, of
course — more sensible is beyond me.

If health is the issue — and Health Minister Anne McLellan has reiterated
that marijuana is harmful, thus will continue to remain illegal — then
there would have been two clear options for Ottawa: either declare
marijuana a weed non grata, with prohibitive possession penalties attached,
or, more boldly, decriminalize it entirely, indeed decriminalize all
"recreational" drugs, and deal with addiction as exclusively a health
issue, concentrating on treatment and prevention, rather than as criminal
activity.

At least that would take the matter out of police hands, lop billions off
law-enforcement budgets and free up the courts. But, oh no, that would be
far too radical for Canada, or any other country where chasing the druggies
has become inextricably linked to the economy. Just imagine how the
colossal reduction of crime would wipe out the anti-drug industry, from
trafficker to cop to prosecutor to jailer.

The government has also put itself in the awkward position of mildly
endorsing casual marijuana use while at the same time promoting oppressive
anti-smoking policies. Might the day come when tokers will be tolerated in
a public place — a bar, a rock concert — but smokers hunted down, forced to
wear a charcoal-coloured star and exiled to a nicotine gulag?

This is not so far-fetched an idea. In the pot paradise of the Netherlands,
where marijuana is sold and used openly in "coffee" shops, hundreds of
them, legislators are poised to approve a new law that would force tokers
to smoke their joints outside, specifically to protect employees from
passive smoke — and second-hand ganja fumes are a darn sight less passive
than second-hand tobacco smoke. We're talking non-contact highs.

Or maybe we want Canada to be more like the Netherlands, with half the
population walking around blissed-out and stupid and shiftless. They don't
call it dope for nothing.

Canada won't straight-up decriminalize marijuana, nor legalize and control
its distribution — as per alcohol and tobacco, as taxed products — because
that would make Ottawa the "pusher," the same moralistic reasoning that
makes solicitation of sex (but not prostitution, narrowly defined) illegal.

Yet the cynic in me suspects that softening up the marijuana laws issuing
tickets instead of laying criminal charges for possession of up to 15 grams
— has more to do with raking in the cash than sparing users a criminal record.

Under this pot-bellied legislation, up to 15 grams would result in fines of
$150 to $400 for adults, $100 to $250 for teenagers. Police would be
allowed to use their own discretion — always a scary thought for amounts
between 15 and 30 grams, either laying charges that carry a maximum penalty
of six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000, or issuing a ticket for
up to $300. But grass growers, even those caught green-thumbing just one to
three marijuana plants, would be subject to penalties ranging up to a year
in jail and a $5,000 fine. A 14-year prison max could be slapped against
those growing more than 50 plants, or double the current top sentence.

So, don't grow your own. Buy it down on the corner instead.

This is the legislation the Liberals hope to enshrine in law before year's end.

By comparison, the current law on the books — under the Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act, contained in the Criminal Code — calls for a fine not
exceeding $1,000 and/or a jail term not exceeding six months for possession
of 30 grams or less of cannabis or 1 gram or less of resin. For any
subsequent offence, the fine jumps to $2,000 and the jail term to one year.

The new legislation makes no provision for increasing penalties for those
repeatedly ticketed for possession. The existing law provides for a maximum
prison sentence of five years less a day for possession of 3 kilograms,
while trafficking over 3 kilograms is liable to life imprisonment. Never
happens.

Obviously, most people, given a choice, would opt for a fine over a cot in
the hoosegow. Now casual users, including teenagers smoking up in the
basement, need not worry about a jail sentence. In truth, rarely did the
courts hand out jail terms for possession of small pot quantities anyway.
But let's bypass the courts and go straight to the cashier's till instead —
which is essentially what the proposed law is saying. The user avoids jail,
however remote that possibility, and the government makes a tidy profit.

Cauchon, in tabling the legislation, claimed that up to 100,000 Canadians
are smoking dope daily. Maybe so. Statistics Canada figures show that,
under federal statutes, a total of 19,539 possession cases went to adult
criminal court in 2001, resulting in 11,517 convictions, 74 acquittals,
7,684 stays and 264 being resolved by some "other" fashion. In the same
period, there were 15,729 trafficking cases, resulting in 7,327
convictions, 280 acquittals, 7,092 stays and 1,030 "other."

Under the Young Offenders Act: 2,156 cases, 1,396 guilty verdicts, seven
acquittals, 721 stays, 32 "other." (All these figures, however, as StatsCan
admits, are seriously skewed because they don't include court cases tried
under residual federal statutes — a total of 19,234 — mostly in Quebec.)

It's impossible to speculate how the numbers will skew under the proposed
new drug law. But what's indisputable is this: The government, talking out
of both sides of its mouth, will be entering into an agreement that tacitly
permits casual drug use, for those willing to pay the piper for the pipe.
And with the government taking its cut.

Far out, man.