CAN CANADA CAN CANNABIS CANARDS?

American college students already head north of the border for drinks and
lap dances. Could they soon be going up to Canada to smoke pot as well?

This week the Canadian Senate's Special Committee on Drugs issued a
600-page report calling for the legalization of marijuana. The document may
simply join the dusty pile of calm, measured drug policy assessments that
governments have routinely ignored for the last century. But as the work of
a legislative committee (albeit one drawn from a chamber whose members do
not face election), it is remarkable both for debunking canards about
marijuana and for recommending bold changes in the law.

Among other things, the report concludes that "cannabis itself is not a
cause of other drug use" or of crime; that "most users are not at-risk
users" liable to addiction; that "cannabis alone, particularly in low
doses, has little effect on the skills involved in automobile driving"; and
that "cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol." In language
strikingly similar to what one hears from American critics of the war on
drugs-although almost never, as in this case, from members of the national
legislature-the committee says "the continued prohibition of cannabis
jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the
substance itself." It also argues that prohibition "undermines the
fundamental values set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

The report's policy proposals, unanimously endorsed by the committee, are
courageous as well. Rather than merely recommend that the government stop
arresting pot smokers, as England has more or less done, or tolerate retail
marijuana sales while keeping the business technically illegal, which is
the policy in the Netherlands, the committee calls for a system in which
"persons over the age of 16" could "procure cannabis and its derivatives at
duly licensed distribution centers." This sounds similar to the arrangement
envisioned by reformers in Nevada, except that the minimum age there would
be 21. The committee recommends that growing marijuana for personal use
also be permitted and that Canadians convicted of pot possession receive
amnesty.

"We have come to the conclusion that [marijuana] should be regulated by the
state much as we do for wine and beer, hence our preference for
legalization over decriminalization," the committee says. "Whether or not
an individual uses marijuana should be a personal choice that is not
subject to criminal penalties." It's a sad commentary on the ossified state
of drug policy in the United States that Canada-home of socialized health
care, strict gun control, and speech restrictions-has something to teach us
about personal choice.