CRIMINAL RECORDS NOT FAIR FOR POT USERS

To the Editor:

Young adults make their own choices, and we all want to help them make the
right ones. But what if, despite your best child rearing efforts, you learn
that your eighteen-year-old daughter has been arrested for marijuana
possession? What if she has been using it frequently, or discreetly selling
it to consenting friends and acquaintances for pocket money and social
status? No harm was intended, and the activity was welcomed by her peers.
What would you consider most helpful: counseling, a fine, prison, a
criminal record, or no punishment at all?

Under present laws, a criminal record would be likely.

But that would not help her achieve a drug-free lifestyle.

She would be better served by the sort of counseling commonly used to help
alcoholics. In her case, and in general, a criminal record will cause more
harm than good. That is one good reason why Canada should decriminalize
marijuana.

Unfortunately, President Bush's administration wants to prevent this,
arguing that decriminalization in Canada will increase the flow of Canadian
marijuana into the USA. But this seems unlikely: Our present marijuana laws
are already largely ignored, so why would relaxing them result in any
change in the amount of marijuana available?

There is no basis for Bush's claim, and he himself must know that. What
must really concern him is that if our experiment with decriminalization
succeeds, it will underscore the embarrassing failure of his own drug
policy, and will increase pressure for decriminalization in the USA.

Bush's marijuana policy is fatally flawed, because even if he could
completely eradicate the supply of pot, Americans would use other
substances to get high. Take Japan, for example: There, marijuana has been
scarce, and young people have instead resorted to sniffing solvents and
using amphetamines. Evidently, eliminating the supply of marijuana can
actually encourage more dangerous practices!

This is because supply is merely the servant of demand.

Consumer demand is what really drives the marijuana trade.

As long as people want to get high, the potential profits will encourage
marijuana cultivation. Accordingly, Bush should recognize that Canadian
marijuana cultivation is fuelled principally by the enormous American
demand for the drug. If the demand were eliminated, the supply would dry up.

Making Canada a scapegoat will not solve anything, so Bush should stop
blaming us, and stop meddling in our domestic politics.

We have cooperated loyally with his hopeless drug war far too long. Every
year, Canada spends half a billion tax dollars to enforce marijuana laws,
yet pot is as easy to obtain as ever. We simply can no longer afford the
high financial and human cost, senselessly criminalizing so many of our
young people, with no positive result.

A criminal record only makes it more difficult for a marijuana user to
reform, by seriously limiting employment and career opportunities. No one
should have their life ruined with such a severe social stigma simply
because they have committed a minor drug offense, especially when so many
others committing the same offense are never caught, and may go on to hold
high positions in business, education, and government. The unlucky ones who
do get criminalized may be effectively prevented from fully contributing
their talents to society for the remainder of their lives, which is a loss
for us all.

If George Bush himself had not been so well-protected by family money and
political connections, and instead had been justly punished with the
criminal record that he apparently deserved for the alleged reckless
behavior and cocaine use of his youth, then he would never have become
President of the USA! How then can Bush, in good conscience, demand the
continued criminalization of Canadian young people - for behavior less
offensive than what he himself got away with? His stance is brazenly
hypocritical!

We Canadians know that our expensive, divisive, civil war against drugs can
never be won. Our wishful thinking that prohibition could eliminate
marijuana use has only fooled us into grossly underestimating the vast
resources actually needed.

Thus, enforcement has been ineffectual - sufficient only to bolster the
price of marijuana, without significantly controlling supply, and doing
little to curb demand.

Ironically, by supporting marijuana prices, we are allowing criminal gangs
to reap huge profits, and evolve into powerful drug cartels, bringing
weapons, violence and lawlessness to our communities.

We must stop this hopeless war that is draining our prosperity and tearing
at our social fabric.

We must stop oppressing our own youth with unjustly harsh laws, and
advocating a spirit of mistrust that pits one suspicious neighbor against
another.

Let's reform our marijuana laws now, and deal with this issue sensibly and
realistically, for the benefit of everyone! Let's ask Canada's politicians
not for self-righteous posturing on the safest moral high ground, but
instead for imagination, courage, and leadership, as we struggle to turn
this new page of hope.

Please note: I am a non-smoking, non-drinking, law-abiding Canadian
citizen. My two school-aged children are drug-free, and I do not advocate
recreational marijuana use.

Paul M, Abbotsford, BC