POT DEBATE ENOUGH TO DRIVE YOU TO DRINK

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 of 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 any more, 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 U.S.
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 =D0 Surrey's mayor
and a local MP among them =D0 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 =D0 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.

Andrew Holota is editor of the Surrey Leader, a sister paper to the
Abbotsford News and member of the B.C. News Group