POT SPOTS UPDATE

The Canadian Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs released a report on
September 4 announcing that the current prohibition of marijuana use should
end. "Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is
substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a
criminal issue but as a social and public health issue," said the
committee's chairperson, Senator Pierre Nolin, a member of the Progressive
Conservative Party.

The panel unanimously recommended legalizing sales and use of marijuana and
hashish to anyone over 16, and allowing citizens to grow the drug for their
own use. Also recommended was that the government regulate sales and
production just like cigarettes and beer, that the product be taxed and
some of the proceeds pay for research on health affects.

The Canadian government will make a decision to revise Canada's drug laws
next year.

To those who have been following Canada's approach to marijuana policy,
this may not come as too big a surprise. Canada has been consistently more
progressive regarding its approach to dealing with both medical marijuana
and industrial hemp, and for the last few years and despite constant
criticism from the US, has managed to take slow but deliberate steps
towards decriminalizing pot for adults.

Perhaps the US should stop criticizing and take a look in the mirror. The
recently released 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported
that 15.9 million Americans age 12 and older used an illegal drug in the
month before the survey interview. This is 7.1 percent of the population in
2001, compared to an estimated 6.3 percent the year before. Think about it
- - current law makes approximately one of every dozen US citizens a federal
criminal.

When you go to the polls this November, remember, the people who think the
War on Drugs is working are the same people running the War on Terrorism.