CANADA: THERE'S A FUNNY SMELL IN THE AIR

THE big scoop in the Canadian news media last week came when a reporter
asked Justice Minister Martin Cauchon if he had ever smoked marijuana.

"But of course," replied Mr. Cauchon, Canada's top law enforcement officer.
"I'm 39 years old." Smiling, he was quick to add that he had given it up.

On the other end of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, another group of dogged
reporters couldn't help but ask Prime Minister Jean Chretien if he had ever
smoked the stuff.

"When I was young the word mari-uh, did not exist," the 68-year-old Mr.
Chretien said. "I learned about the word long after that. It was too late
for me to try it." A reporter was quick to interject: "It's never too late,
prime minister."

All the banter about marijuana use comes at a time when Canadians are
talking about decriminalizing pot smoking. It seems only natural that now
that Britain decided last week to make possession of a small amount of
marijuana a ticketing offense, that its liberal former colony would soon
follow suit. Pot smoking is pervasive in Canada, after all, especially in
British Columbia, which is also a major production source of marijuana sold
in the United States. Marijuana use is so prevalent in Vancouver that the
city has been compared to Amsterdam as a pot-smoker's paradise.

The House of Commons is not currently in session. But Mr. Cauchon has
suggested that the country should rethink laws that make marijuana illegal
and crowd court calendars with pot-smoking cases.

The Toronto Star agreed in an editorial last week, saying: "Marijuana
remains a vice, like drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes. It would be
better handled through public education, not by giving people criminal
records."

Still, Canadian opinion makers are wondering what the Americans will say.
With relations with the Bush administration already on edge over increased
American tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, some Canadians think
Washington could retaliate against any softening of Canadian anti-pot laws
by tightening the border.

"Would softer pot laws stir wrath of U.S.?" asked the headline of an
article in The Globe and Mail, a prominent national newspaper. "The
neighbors are likely to yell," came the answer, "but not everybody thinks
that's the end of the world."