CANADA COMMITTEE URGES LAXER POT LAWS, U.S. UPSET

OTTAWA - A parliamentary committee urged the Canadian government on
Thursday to relax its laws on possession of marijuana, an idea that
Washington's drug czar immediately branded as outdated and dangerous.

The special committee on the non-medical use of drugs said in a report that
marijuana should be decriminalized, but not legalized. This means people
possessing and cultivating pot in amounts less than 1.1 ounces would be
fined if caught, rather than getting a criminal record as at present.

About 20,000 Canadians a year are convicted for possession or cultivation
of marijuana, which committee chairwoman Paddy Torsney said this was a
waste of police resources because current laws seemed to be having no effect.

"We concluded that the possession of marijuana should remain illegal and
trafficking in any amount of cannabis should remain a crime," she told a
news conference.

"Smoking any amount of marijuana is unhealthy but the consequences of
conviction of a small amount of marijuana for personal use are
disproportionate to the potential harm," she said, pointing out that 30
percent of Canadians admitted to having smoked pot.

The report provides more ammunition for Justice Minister Martin Cauchon,
who said this week he planned to introduce legislation early next year to
decriminalize marijuana.

But in the United States officials, already worried about the increasing
amounts of potent Canadian marijuana flowing across the border, flatly
condemned the idea that pot was not particularly dangerous.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said the committee's recommendations reflected "archaic views"
about marijuana.

"The line that has been presented to Americans as well as Canadians is that
marijuana is not a serious drug of abuse. That is not true," he said.

"High-potency marijuana in particular is being used by teenagers of younger
and younger ages," he told a news conference in Buffalo, New York.

Walters said the recommendations would lead to greater use of marijuana and
other drugs, and if Canadian laws were relaxed the United States might have
to increase security at the two nations' shared border to clamp down on
trafficking.

This could deal a major blow to Canada's economy, since more than 85
percent of its exports go to the United States.

"No family, no community and no nation is better off with more drug
use...for people who have tried to tell Americans marijuana is not
something you have to pay attention to -- it's a lie," said Walters.

Police say Canada, with an estimated illegal drug market of $9 billion a
year, has surpassed Mexico as a source of illegal drugs for the United States.

Torsney said decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana would help strike
at organized crime gangs -- especially in the western province of British
Columbia -- who have turned pot growing into a multibillion-dollar industry.

"The committee hopes that these (proposed) changes will free police and
judicial resources to pursue other more serious criminal activity," she said.

The committee -- comprising legislators from the House of Commons --
recommended against the full legalization of marijuana, an idea that
Justice Minister Cauchon has already rejected.

In September a Senate committee said marijuana should be legalized and
regulated, as is the case with alcohol.

Kevin Sorenson of the official opposition Canadian Alliance, a right-wing
law-and-order party, backed the overall thrust of the report but said the
limit for marijuana possession should be set at 0.2 ounces.

Torsney's committee on Monday recommended Ottawa establish "safe" injection
sites as a way to cut the spread of diseases such as AIDS among drug
addicts, a proposal that generated criticism from police and opposition
politicians.