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 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 this city,
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 flaw in that approach, however, is the fact that there exists directly
on the other side of the border, a huge illicit market for B.C. bud.

American authorities have made it abundantly 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 there for "the herb" at all. And that means
crime will still pay for those who smuggle marijuana across the border.

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 toughest cops and 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, to no avail.

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 own laws, and ironically, their demand for our pot, are major
contributors to the problem.

It's enough to drive you to drink.