PANEL SUGGESTS CANADA EASE CURBS ON MARIJUANA; US UPSET

OTTAWA - A parliamentary committee urged the Canadian government
yesterday to relax its laws on possession of marijuana, an idea that
US drug policy chief John Walters called outdated and dangerous.

The special committee on the nonmedical use of drugs said in a report
that marijuana should be decriminalized, but not legalized. This means
people possessing and cultivating the drug in amounts less than 30
grams, about an ounce, could only be fined, rather than getting a
criminal record.

About 20,000 Canadians a year are convicted for possession or
cultivation of marijuana, which committee chairwoman Paddy Torsney
said 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
said at 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 marijuana.

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 rejected the idea that the drug is not particularly dangerous.

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," he said. "That is
not true."

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

Walters said the recommendations would lead to greater use of
marijuana and other drugs.