DON'T BULLY CANADA, U.S. TOLD

Washington Wants Our Drug Law Changes Shelved Professor Says

American Should Mind Own Business

Canada shouldn't be "bullied" by the United States into shelving its
proposed drug law changes, says a prominent Harvard University law professor.

Alan Dershowitz added in an interview in Toronto that the White House czar
pushing Ottawa to scrap plans to decriminalize marijuana possession "should
mind his own business.

"Our drug czar is causing enough problems in (the United States). He
shouldn't be trying to expand the parameters of his negative effect into
Canada," Dershowitz said.

"Canada is absolutely right in decriminalizing, or considering
decriminalizing, possession of small amounts of recreational drugs and the
United States has no business telling Canada what to do," he said. "We have
been an utter failure in the United States in our approach to drug control
and we should not be exporting bad policies."

The federal government plans to introduce legislation by the end of the
month abolishing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of
marijuana, making it an offence punishable by fine. The move is part of a
new national drug control strategy expected to include tougher penalties
for traffickers and the operators of marijuana "grow" operations.

But John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, has been a vocal opponent of Ottawa's plan, predicting it
will increase the "movement of poison" across the border and cause economic
damage. Border traffic could be slowed because U.S. customs agents will
have to conduct more searches, he said

Dershowitz said the border is already "pretty porous" and he sees little
merit in Walters' concerns, but even if they come true "that's part of the
problem of living in a multinational world."

Dershowitz, an outspoken champion of civil liberties, was in Toronto last
Wednesday at the invitation of the Toronto branch of the Ben Gurion
University Associates.

They hosted a luncheon to raise scholarship funds for students from the
university who put aside their studies to serve in the Israeli military.

In an interview before speaking to about 250 people at the Windsor Arms
hotel, Dershowitz said the United States telling Canada how to fashion its
drug laws would be like Ottawa trying to ban American television programs
that could run afoul of Canada's hate laws.

"The United States would say, 'No. We have the First Amendment. Our free
speech rights are broader than yours and we're not going to take orders
from you.'

"What if, for example, in the United States we were to abolish abortion, as
some in the Bush administration would like to do?

"Would we ask Canada to abolish abortion too, just because there's a
possibility that women might come over the border to have abortions? No.
You're a sovereign country."