POT BAD, PERIC SAYS

Cambridge MP Janko Peric says he won't vote for any weakening of Canada's
pot laws, because it's unhealthy.

Cambridge MP Janko Peric says he will vote against any motion put forward
to decriminalize marijuana.

He feels reducing the potential penalties would promote the use of a
harmful substance among young people.

"The fact is, we are spending a huge amount of money to tell people young
people not to smoke tobacco," he said yesterday.

"Why would we want to encourage young people to poison themselves with
(marijuana)?"

That's contrary to the position of Kitchener-Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi,
who supports the movement to decriminalize the use of moderate amounts of
marijuana. He would like to see it made an infraction punishable with fines
or community service rather than an offence imposing a criminal record.

Peric says he has never smoked pot, nor even "tried anything harder than a
cigar." He says decriminalizing pot would be a big step in the wrong direction.

"If you open the door today for marijuana, tomorrow it will be hash, and
then who-knows-what other chemicals," he said.

So many Canadians are using pot, Telegdi counters, that it's silly to
consider all of them criminals. Plus, he believes police resources are
wasted on marijuana users when there are more serious crimes to worry about.

Telegdi said that while attending university he occasionally puffed pot.