PM BLOWING SMOKE WHEN IT COMES TO MARIJUANA: HARRIS

Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Dick Harris is questioning the prime
minister's motives behind recently announcing he's changed his mind on
decriminalizing possession of marijuana for personal use.

Originally hesitant on the issue, Chretien has come out in support of moving
quickly to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, so those
found with the substance would still be fined, but not given a criminal
record.

Harris said the move appears in part to be a simple act of supporting a
minister, but is mostly about trying to shove other more damaging issues off
the agenda. Although juicy, and thus attractive to the media, Harris said
the issue is not that important.

"The Liberals are very good at this," he said. "They keep two or three or
four always-controversial issues just in their storage vault and when they
may get themselves in a jam over some other issues, they will simply drop
one of these controversial things on the public plate, and the media just is
drawn to them like flies."

By putting his name behind the issue, Harris said Chretien gave the
decriminalization issue enough impact to push the billion-dollar gun control
fiasco off the front page. He also suspects another story may be about to
break and that Chretien is trying to keep the media hounds off that scent by
focussing on pot.

As for the issue itself, Harris believes that the proposed 30 gram limit for
personal possession is too high.

"Even at five or 10 grams, which brings it down to a more personal use
level, I haven't made a decision yet, but I likely will oppose it," he said.

That's because he fears it will lead to more people driving while under the
influence of marijuana. Harris said there are not enough police trained in
spotting people who are driving while stoned.

"Until we do, I'm not going to support any legislation that will possibly
lead to the increase of people driving while under some substance," he said.