WASHINGTON TURNS UP HEAT ON CANADA OVER MARIJUANA PLANS

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The head of U.S. drug policy launched one of his
strongest attacks on Friday on Canada's plans to relax penalties for
marijuana possession, and dismissed as "ridiculous" one of Ottawa's main
reasons for pushing ahead with the idea.

The Canadian government will introduce draft legislation later this month
that would replace jail terms and criminal records with fines of perhaps
C$100 ($73) for possession of 15 grams (half an ounce) or less of pot.

John Walters, director of the White House office of National Drug Control
Policy, said he feared this would hamper U.S. efforts to cut the amount of
powerful Canadian-grown marijuana from being smuggled across the border.

"The problem now is that the high-potency marijuana business is growing
uncontrollably in Canada... You're sending us the crack equivalent of
marijuana and that's bad for both countries," he told CBC television.

"What we've been trying to do with Canadian officials (is learn) 'What's the
plan to make this smaller as a harm to the United States?' And there isn't
one now, that's the problem," he said.

Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, who will introduce the legislation
at the end of May, criticizes existing marijuana laws for being largely
ineffective and enforced unevenly.

Supporters of the legislation say it would allow police to focus on catching
organized crime gangs dealing in drugs rather than arresting and charging
small-time pot users.

But Walters strongly questioned this argument, saying there was no evidence
Canadian law enforcement officials were cracking down on marijuana users.

"It's completely ridiculous to suggest that Canada is locking up users in
significant numbers. That's not happening. In fact, to claim they're even
being arrested in large numbers is a distortion. That's what Canadian law
enforcement tells me," he said.

Walters complained that penalties for drug users were not harsh enough in
Canada and suggested -- as he has done in the past -- that border security
might have to be tightened if the law were passed. This could have a
crushing effect on Canadian exporters, which are heavily reliant on the U.S.
market.

Canadian Solicitor-General Wayne Easter, in overall charge of law
enforcement, said Walters should wait to see the details of the legislation.

"When the entire strategy comes out, as will happen in the last two or three
days of the month, I think Mr. Walters as well as others in the United
States will see that we are in fact making fairly major moves forward," he
told reporters.

"Our objective is to make those borders secure and to do what we have to do
to eliminate the movement of high quality (marijuana)... anyone caught
smuggling the product across the border will face very severe penalties."

Cauchon says an estimated 100,000 of Canada's 30 million people are using
pot daily and the numbers are increasing. He has said that marijuana would
remain illegal, even if no longer criminal, and that penalties would be
toughened substantially for marijuana-growing operations.

Several U.S. states, including New York, California, Oregon and Ohio, have
already relaxed laws on simple possession and issue fines to those found
with small amounts of marijuana.

($1=$1.37 Canadian)