LEGALIZING POT COULD BE CHRETIEN'S LEGACY

Re Make pot legal: Senate panel, Sept. 5.

When I take a whiff of stalled marijuana law reforms, it smells to me like
the cowardice, hypocrisy and public manipulation that have caused Canadian
parliamentarians to spontaneously drop trembling to the ground at the
thought of changing the status quo.

It is painfully obvious that change is the right thing; at least it is
obvious to anyone but the thickest, the dullest and the most unimaginative
among us.

Change would bravely, if mischievously, assert our Canadian identity,
vision and progressive self-determination to the bullies in our schoolyard
- -- the United States. Perhaps it would distract them from starting a war to
benefit only their oil interests and the great American ego.

Anne McLellan is "uncomfortable" with strengthening the government's stance
on medicinal marijuana. I know a few people dying of cancer who are a
little more "uncomfortable" than she is.

I dare Canada to pull its mind out of the illusion that all drugs are
created equal, including tobacco and alcohol -- proven time and again to be
physically and socially worse than pot.

But to end the anti-marijuana, propaganda-filled dream world would be to
invite that scary c-word -- change.

We would do better to engage our society in building real change, relief,
amnesty and hope for Canadians. We are already critically disillusioned by
our government's failure to sensibly match reality with policy.

The latest Senate report on drugs puts us one step closer to common sense,
and one step further from the colossal drain on resources characterizing
current marijuana criminalization.

Wake up and smell the coffee. But the Senators can tell you about something
that smells even better.

To the lawmakers, it smells like justice and political courage. To the
cowards, it smells like knee-jerk fear, unsupported by fact.

To the rest of us, it smells like a sweetly pungent cloud of smoke. To Jean
Chretien, it should smell like the most astounding, yet unlikely of
possible spectacular legacies. It's right under his nose. And nobody would
see it coming.

Arisa Cox

Toronto