CANADA HAS IT RIGHT ON MARIJUANA

On Dec. 12, the House of Commons special committee on the non-medical use
of drugs released a report calling for the decriminalization of marijuana,
and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said he plans to put forth a
decriminalization bill early in 2003.

It is a safe bet that the U.S. government reaction will be hostile, just as
it always seems to be when people talk about reconsidering marijuana laws.

Canadians should understand that on drug policy, the U.S. government is
increasingly out of step with Americans. Canadians should use their own
good sense, make their own judgments, and disregard U.S. bullying, as most
of our drug laws were made on a racist foundation instead of science.

In September, when the Canadian Senate special committee on illegal drugs
issued a report that recommended replacing marijuana prohibition with a
system of regulation, the official U.S. reaction was swift and blunt. John
Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
(commonly termed the Drug Czar) was quoted on both sides of the border
expressing his dismay. He even hinted at a border crackdown that could
strangle trade between our nations.

U.S. drug-policy leaders should spend more time talking with knowledgeable
Canadians such as Senate committee chairman Pierre Claude Nolin to learn
why they have reached such dramatically different conclusions from the U.S.
drug warriors. If they did, they might learn that much of their rhetoric
about marijuana being a "gateway drug" is simply wrong. After decades of
looking, scientists still have no evidence that marijuana causes people to
use harder drugs. If there is any true "gateway drug," it's tobacco.

And tobacco, through its direct physical effects, kills many thousands of
people every year. So does alcohol. And it is easy to fatally overdose on
alcohol, just as you can fatally overdose on prescription drugs, or even
over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin or acetaminophen (the active
ingredient in Tylenol).

I don't believe that anyone has ever died from a marijuana overdose.

This is not to say that marijuana is harmless. It's not, and there are good
reasons not to use it -- especially for young people.

But from a public-health perspective, there is a solid case to be made that
arresting marijuana users, giving them criminal records and disrupting
careers and families does more harm to more people than the drug itself does.

Why do U.S. officials such as Mr. Walters so adamantly resist even having
this discussion? The answer lies in the numbers. We have a massive antidrug
bureaucracy that is largely fuelled by our war on marijuana: Nearly half of
all drug arrests in the United States are for marijuana-related charges,
and 89 per cent of those are for simple possession. Take away those arrests
and massive antidrug budgets are much harder to justify.

But if our officials start making threats again, Canadians should remember
that those officials don't represent the views of the American public. A
Nov. 4 Time magazine poll found that 72 per cent of Americans don't believe
marijuana users should go to jail. Eighty per cent believe seriously ill
people should be able to use marijuana for medical purposes, despite our
government's rigid opposition to that humane and sensible idea.

If Canada needs guidance, it can look toward Europe, where many governments
have moved toward enlightened policies, and others are conducting serious,
thoughtful examinations of their marijuana laws. If we are lucky, Canada
will set an example that the United States will eventually follow.