POT NOT A GATEWAY DRUG, SENATOR SAYS

Senate Report On Marijuana

If provincial justice ministers closely read a Senate report on marijuana,
they will no longer argue pot is a gateway drug, says the report's
committee chairman.

"Definitely," Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chairman of the Special Senate
Committee on Illegal Drugs, said yesterday.

The report, released in September, cites studies contradicting theories
linking marijuana use to drugs like cocaine.

"It's not a gateway drug," said Nolin. "There's nothing in the substance
that leads to other drugs."

And the "gateway," he said, is the drug dealer who can give the user access
to other substances. "The gateway is not the substance. It's the black
market," said Nolin.

The senator is not, however, disappointed if most provincial justice
ministers have not read the report.

"We're adults and pragmatic," he said.

Alberta Justice Minister David Hancock has said the province's position has
been consistent on marijuana.

"We don't see any rationale behind decriminalizing or legalizing," he said
Tuesday. "The police have indicated - and I certainly believe them - that
it's a starter drug and it's part of the organized crime scenario. By
allowing any more latitude in our community we're really feeding organized
crime and the criminals who make a profit from it."

Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa lawyer and a founding member of the Canadian
Foundation for Drug Policy, said he's tired of hearing politicians use that
argument and added "unfortunately your minister is ill informed."

Oscapella said he believes Hancock made the comments out of "ignorance, but
in good faith."

"I would be pleased to discuss it with him," said Hancock.

Sanjeev Anand, a law professor at the University of Alberta, said if
marijuana is legalized, it would hurt organized crime.

"We would be taking an illegal earning opportunity away from them," said Anand.

"The example is Prohibition where organized crime was involved in
bootlegging during Prohibition.

After Prohibition was over, this took away more or less a lot of financial
resources from organized crime."