Our Opinion: It's Time For The Federal Government To Decriminalize
Recreational Marijuana Use

THE POT THICKENS

Canada's marijuana laws don't work. The country's police chiefs said so
years ago. More recently so did the Senate's legal affairs committee and so
do millions of Canadians who every day continue to blaze a trail and flout
the law through their recreational use of marijuana.

Now federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is gingerly adding his voice
to the growing number of credible sources who think Canada's laws must be
reworked. Cauchon is toying with decriminalizing marijuana use by making
possession of small amounts of cannabis a ticketing offence, much like a
traffic violation.

To his credit, Cauchon has avoided jumping to conclusions about exactly
what new federal legislation should do with marijuana, but he has clearly
indicated that he finds the current law unacceptable. As it now stands,
simple possession of marijuana is a criminal offence, punishable by
imprisonment.

Believing this to be too harsh, the government is considering some form of
decriminalization, though possession would still be illegal. Presumably,
growing marijuana for commercial purposes in homes would remain illegal, as
would trafficking marijuana.

Cauchon's suggestion follows on the heels of Great Britain, which last week
became the latest European country to relax its possession laws.

There, police would arrest marijuana users only if they caused public
problems or threatened to harm children. Other countries, such as the
Netherlands, have gone even further in liberalizing marijuana laws. There
are strong, well-known arguments for making reforms here. When the Senate
Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee recommended in 1996 to change
the law, it reported an estimated 3 million Canadians were using marijuana
and hashish. That, they said, was strong proof the punitive approach had failed.