STIRRING THE POT

Canada mellows on marijuana, irking the U.S. Is that such a bad thing?

Corky and Pumpkin are not your typical drug mules.

Actually, they're bears. U.S. customs agents grabbed the ursine duo on Jan.
27 at the Blaine, Washington, international border crossing with 70 kg of
marijuana stashed behind the false wall of their trailer cage. They were
promptly hustled off to a nearby wildlife center for a nice meal. A
different fate awaited the bears' chauffeur.

Duane Christopher Bradley, 23, an Abbotsford, B.C., animal trainer who was
driving Corky and Pumpkin to a film shoot in Los Angeles, pled guilty to a
drug-trafficking charge and now faces up to 10 years in jail. Give him, at
least, points for ingenuity: the illicit marijuana trade between Canada and
the U.S. is apparently stoking the entrepreneurial spirit.

Border drug smugglers, says Mike Milne, a U.S. Customs spokesman in Seattle,
are now employing "everything from old ladies in wheelchairs to airplane
drops."

You ain't seen nothing yet. U.S. authorities say they're bracing for an
upsurge in cross-border drug traffic if Ottawa passes legislation that would
make the possession of small amounts of marijuana equivalent to a traffic
infraction. The so-called "decriminalization" bill could be tabled as early
as this week, and the prospect is making the White House think Mexico when
it looks north. "We're already facing an explosion of illegal drugs and
precursor materials coming out of Canada," says John Walters, director of
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). "Anybody
applying common sense can see this bill will make things change for the
worse."

Maybe. But fierce U.S. lobbying has also added, well, a certain odor to the
already shaky bilateral relationship. Canada, it seems, has emerged from the
tiff with Washington over the war in Iraq only to be accused of waffling in
the war against drugs.

U.S. officials have warned that trade will suffer if they are forced to ramp
up their already tight border-inspection regime to cope with an increase in
drug smuggling.

The new legislation, along with a new national drug strategy, will be the
government's response to a decade of data suggesting that antipot laws
currently on the books have been counterproductive. About 20,000
Canadians--most of them under 25--are prosecuted every year on possession
charges, even though a large number of cases are dismissed. "Young people,
as a result, have a disregard for the system," Justice Minister Martin
Cauchon tells Time. "That's not the message I want to send our kids." Under
the bill, pot would remain illegal, and penalties for trafficking may even
increase.

Hardly a drugs-for-everyone proposal.

Twelve U.S. states have marijuana laws that are at least as liberal as the
proposed Canadian one. So why are the Americans blowing smoke?

Answer: Washington believes that Canada's drug policy will subvert its own
strategy and poison American youth. "We have 6 million people under drug
treatment, and 60% are marijuana dependent," fumes the ONDCP's Walters.
"Canadians are treating this like kiddy dope."

That raises an interesting question.

Would any reform of Canadian drug laws--however mild--offend Washington?
After all, the new Canadian policy is itself a compromise. Last September, a
Canadian Senate committee called on the government to regulate the
production and sale of cannabis; in other words, to legalize it. "The
continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of
Canadians much more than does the substance itself," said the report, which
went on to argue that the government should treat marijuana use as a health
problem, not a criminal one. The feds rejected this recommendation, mostly
on the grounds that it would flout international antidrug treaties.

The result, however, is a half measure that satisfies few.

Whatever Canada does, its domestic drug policies will have an impact south
of the border.

Washington's official position on any change in Canadian law could hardly be
clearer.

For the Canadian government, the question is whether American objections
should be decisive.

If Ottawa believes--and polls suggest most Canadians do--that its marijuana
laws need a radical overhaul, the government should reconsider its rejection
of the Senate committee's proposal for full legalization. The drug war in
North America has all but failed, and genuine cross-border competition in
public policies might produce some new solutions.

In the innovative spirit, you could say, of Corky and Pumpkin.