MARIJUANA PROS AND CONS

Decriminalize Or Just Say No? Questions About Addiction Loom Large In Debate

KITCHENER -- Sean Doiron tried smoking marijuana as a teenager but it made
him paranoid and sick. When he was high, he thought people were talking
about him so he secluded himself. He threw up and sometimes passed out.

Because of these bad experiences, Doiron, who manages a Kitchener hemp
shop, no longer uses marijuana. Yet he thinks the drug should be
decriminalized.

The manager of Shakedown Street on King Street West in downtown Kitchener
doesn't see any difference between smoking marijuana and drinking. Just as
the prohibition against alcohol was lifted, the ban on marijuana should be
too, he believes.

"It's been proven many times . . . that marijuana is less addictive,"
Doiron said.

"I don't know anybody that physically needs to smoke marijuana. It doesn't
cause the liver problems that alcohol causes."

A parliamentary committee recently recommended fines rather than criminal
convictions for possessing small amounts of marijuana. Canada's Justice
Minister Martin Cauchon is close to decriminalizing the possession of small
amounts of pot.

Although some feel that's a good idea, others fear it will send young
people the wrong message about a drug that may not be so harmless.

"Does decriminalization mean it's not that bad?" asked Matt Torigian,
inspector of investigative services for Waterloo regional police.

If that's the message that's sent, "then we've destroyed any good that may
come of this," he said.

Torigian, who made a presentation to the parliamentary committee last
winter, believes young people should be discouraged from using marijuana,
which he sees as harmful.

Torigian won't say he's opposed to decriminalization but only if the move
is balanced with a national drug strategy.

"If that's what this report is talking about, if it's suggesting we need to
come up with better strategies to promote healthy lifestyle choices for our
young people, we would certainly be in favour. . ." he said.

The committee said smoking any amount of marijuana is unhealthy but that
the consequences of being convicted of possessing a small amount of pot for
personal use are too harsh.

A criminal record makes it hard to get work or travel to a foreign country.

The special parliamentary committee on the non-medicinal use of drugs
recommended treating the possession of up to 30 grams of marijuana as a
regulatory offence.

Torigian said 30 grams translates into 60 joints or marijuana cigarettes.

"Ask a parent if they want their 18-year-old child walking around with 60
joints," he said.

"Regardless of whether they received a criminal conviction or a heavy fine
. . . is this a healthy lifestyle choice?"

Craig Parry, a criminal defence lawyer who has defended many people charged
with drug offences, supports marijuana decriminalization.

"I think local judges and appeal courts generally view simple possession as
a very low-end type of crime," he said.

"I don't view (marijuana) as being any more harmful than other legal drugs
such as alcohol or tobacco. It's sort of a paradox to outlaw one of these
vices and not the others."

He said if the government regulated pot and taxed the sale of it, "You'd
put the black market out of business, probably. You'd make enough income
from it to offset any health-care detriments."

Decriminalization would free up police to focus more on serious drugs such
as crack cocaine and heroin, he said. People who use these drugs are more
of a danger to society because they often commit crime to support their
habits, he said.

"You don't hear of spin-off crimes like that from marijuana . . . someone
smoking a joint and having a domestic assault with their wife."

Parry said decriminalizing marijuana possession would reduce the number of
cases clogging the court system. Because of the consequences of a criminal
conviction, he often recommends clients fight possession charges and go to
trial.

"The downside is too big for a conviction but the risks of a trial are
minimal," he said. "It's costly for the court system. There's no incentive
for people to make it easy on the Crown or court system."

Jim Leising, director of prosecution services for the Department of
Justice's Ontario regional office, said there are actually very few cases
of possession of small amounts of pot that make it to court.

Throughout Ontario, those cases comprised just 1.08 per cent of federal
prosecutors' drug possession caseload last year and 1.84 per cent in the
last half of this year.

"There's very few of these cases. I don't think that's what's motivating
this," Leising said.

And Torigian said police aren't spending a lot of time out looking for
people with a few joints to arrest.

"We have not dedicated any resources into investigation of small amounts of
possession," he said.

When charges are laid, it's usually a spin-off from another investigation
which sparks a police search, he said.

Many first-time offenders convicted of possessing a small amount of pot in
Waterloo Region are diverted from the court system if they agree to take an
appropriate counselling course. Others are treated more seriously by being
given given fines or probation but end up with a criminal record.

Leising said it isn't yet clear how decriminalization would be put into
effect. It's possible the regulatory scheme could be administered by the
courts or by some parallel type of tribunal in the same way traffic
offences are processed, he said.

Torigian would like to see those who plead guilty to possessing small
amounts of pot be given "a heavy fine, mandatory counselling, community
service work, rehabilitation, treatment program attendance."

As far as he's concerned, smoking marijuana is just as harmful as smoking
cigarettes. Yet society puts warnings on cigarette packages and, in
Waterloo Region, bans smoking in public places, he said.

Society also warns citizens to drink responsibly because of the potentially
devastating effects of alcohol, he said.

Doiron, who was first introduced to marijuana in Grade 9, says he knows
some people who live productive lives while smoking marijuana recreationally.

He also knows some who aren't productive.

"I think it stems more from their personality than it does from smoking or
drinking," he said.