LEGAL POT

A Senate committee has come out unanimously for the legalization of
marijuana in Canada with government licensed production and sale of the
drug to any Canadian citizen over the age of 16.

The findings echo those made in 1974 by the Le Dain Commission. The
difference between then and now appears to be society is prepared to accept
decriminalization as a government policy.

What committee members have done is finally admit a fact the public has
known for a generation - consumption of illicit drugs cannot be contained
by law if the public will is not there to support it. In effect, the
committee has thrown in the towel when it comes to fighting the Pot War.

If, indeed, the government moves on the Senate recommendation, it will come
at a time when the government is doing its best to stem the use of another
legal drug - cigarettes. Can we now presume the government will take the
billions of police dollars it used to fight the marijuana wars to finance
another war against cigarettes AND pot?

The justification being used in making pot legal is that the funds
allocated to police to fight soft drug pushers can now be turned to
fighting hard drug pushers. By making marijuana legal it seems, somehow, to
undermine the war on hard drugs.

Conservative Senator Pierre-Claude Nolin, chairman of a special committee
that conducted a two-year investigation into the use of cannabis agreed
with the Senate committee co-chairman that more harm than good is being
done by making marijuana possession a criminal offence. It simply turns
21,000 kids a year into criminals - kids that normally behave themselves.

On the law-keeping side of the issue, the legalizing of the drug will ease
the load now being carried by police. Or will it?

Presumably being impaired by marijuana will still be a part of the Criminal
Code much the same as alcohol.

The new twist proposed by the Senate committee is that the government will
license the production and sale of marijuana.

But how will that be done? Wasn't the production of marijuana posing a
quality problem as commented on by a judge out West in the case of an AIDS
victim who wanted the stuff to ease the effects of the disease?

Since marijuana in the raw varies in terms of quality, how much research
will be required to get a plant that has a consistent chemical content when
it comes to the necessary qualities that makes that plant so beloved by its
users? Then there's another issue. If marijuana is legal, where will it be
smoked - in public? In restaurants? What if non-pot users object? Does this
mean all forms of smoking will be banned in public places? It seems the
latest action by the Senate is posing more questions than answers.

The government will likely act on the committee's recommendation, but what
we are hoping is that it will avoid any hoopla over it. It is not any kind
of victory. It is simply an admission the government was not able to
control it.