Time to Smoke Out Farce

UNENFORCED MARIJUANA LAWS BREED ONLY CONTEMPT FOR LEGAL SYSTEM

"There are not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough courts
to enforce a law not supported by the people." -- Hubert H. Humphrey

The U.S. and, to a lesser extent, Canada, should have listened to
Humphrey.

Since the time that Humphrey served under U.S. president Lyndon
Johnson (1965-69) until now, jails filled to bulging with people who
smoke a relatively benign plant are testament to the truth of his words.

North America -- particularly the U.S. -- is about four decades behind
popular opinion, and practice, with regard to marijuana.

Indeed, a poll conducted a couple of years ago found that four out of
every five Canadians are in favour of decriminalizing the simple
possession of marijuana for personal use. In the U.S., about
two-thirds of Americans are in favour of the same.

And as Wendell Phillips (1811-1884) said: "Law is nothing unless close
behind it stands a warm living public opinion."

The whole decriminalization or legalization debate has wafted around
thickly this past week following the rather surprising report by the
Senate's Special Committee on Illegal Drugs released Wednesday.

The committee members of the Upper Chamber of (cough, cough) sober
second thought argued, following two years of study, that marijuana
should be legalized for a whole host of reasons, not least of which
was the unevenness with which the current anti-pot laws are applied.

One person caught lighting up in public might simply have their joint
thrown down a sewage drain, another might be prosecuted and receive a
criminal record. Indeed, the report says about half of the 90,000 drug
incidents reported each year involve cannabis. Worse, drug enforcement
runs at $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year -- with one-third of that
related to cannabis. That's simply a waste of my money.

On Friday, I spent about three minutes walking around one floor of the
Sun building asking one simple question: "Have you ever smoked pot?"

Thirty-two people said yes (myself included) and eight said no and to
be quite frank, it was harder to believe the eight than it was to
believe the others.

Out of all of those people, only one of them still partakes on
occasion. Which is telling, too. It points out that, despite what the
police associations were saying last week, marijuana is something
people do when they are very young and that for the most part, stop
doing eventually and turn into highly productive, responsible adults.

Canada's current laws on marijuana are a farce -- as outdated as laws
still on the books about the proper use and placement of spittoons.

As Woodrow Wilson said: "The law that will work is merely the summing
up in legislative form of the moral judgment that the community has
already reached."

And as Sophocles wrote some 400 years before the birth of Christ: "Nobody
has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law."

Clearly, that's problematic. Numerous Canadian politicians -- our law
makers -- have admitted to using pot.

Indeed, the former president of the U.S., Bill Clinton, admitted to
trying marijuana but not (ahem) inhaling and there are testimonials
from friends of George W. Bush who say W. was a doobie brother who
definitely did inhale. (No wonder he can't remember any good books he
read.)

As U.S. Justice Louis D. Brandeis said: "Crime is contagious. If a
government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it
invites every man to become a law unto himself."

Basically, laws not enforced cease to be laws. And when laws are
inconsistently applied, contempt grows for those laws, those who
enforce them and those who apply them.

That's what's happened with marijuana. Some users and sometimes even
dealers of marijuana have not been charged, while someone like Grant
Krieger, who needs marijuana to relieve the pain and symptoms of MS,
constantly gets pursued, prosecuted and persecuted by the police
despite the fact he has a Court of Queen's bench exemption to use,
grow and distribute marijuana in unlimited quantities. One has to ask
who the lawbreaker is in this case? I would argue it's the Calgary
police.

This is not to say I am an advocate of marijuana use. I am not. I am
also not in favour of legalization. But I am in favour of
decriminalizing marijuana for simple possession for personal use for
all of the age-old reasons listed above.

The Senate committee claims that simply decriminalizing marijuana
leaves its cultivation and distribution in the hands of organized
crime. That is patently ridiculous.

Most of the big grow operations that make it into the news after they
get busted, have nothing to do with bikers and everything to do with
independent people trying to make some fast cash. Unlike cocaine and
heroin, pot can be grown in your basement or backyard. Ties to
organized crime are simply not required and not fact.

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, who has admitted to using marijuana,
said our laws no longer reflect our reality.

"When we have legislation that's not really being enforced because
it's no longer consistent with social realities, it's important for a
government to look at and reshape such legislation," said Cauchon on
Wednesday.

And for my last quote of the column, I turn to Richard Nixon for the
best argument of all.

"We have to find ways to clear the courts of the endless stream of
'victimless crimes' that get in the way of serious consideration of
serious crimes. There are more important matters for highly skilled
judges and prosecutors than minor traffic offences, loitering and
drunkenness."

The irony of that comment is not lost on me.