SMOKED OUT

Federal Minister of Justice Martin Cauchon admitted smoking marijuana in
his youth yesterday.

The way he's been acting lately, you might be forgiven for thinking he's
still indulging in the occasional toke.

On Monday, Cauchon suggested he's considering decriminalizing the illegal
substance -- even though Senate and Commons committees investigating the
issue have yet to release their reports.

Cauchon's comments represent a radical departure from his earlier position
on marijuana, which was that society isn't ready for decriminalization.

If the neophyte minister hasn't been firing up the odd doobie, it's hard to
figure exactly what his motivation might be. Perhaps he merely wanted to
raise his political profile.

If that was the goal, he succeeded. A whole bunch of people are perturbed
with him and the smoke hasn't even begun to clear.

Solicitor-General Lawrence MacAulay has some reservations about the notion.

The Canadian Police Association vowed to fight any moves towards
decriminalization -- claiming it would hamper their efforts to stop
drug-traffickers.

Even the leader of the federal Marijuana Party was left gasping at
Cauchon's suggestion.

The pot party folks are worried that fining people for cannabis possession
will become too attractive a source of revenue for the state.

"It is very nice of Mr. Cauchon to think of us cannabis consumers, but my
major problem ... is that we could see an increase in police stopping
people for cannabis," said Marijuana Party leader Marc-Boris Saint-Maurice.

The pot proponents make it patently clear they're not interested in
decriminalization -- where marijuana is illegal, but not a criminal offence.

The stoners won't rest until it is out-and-out legal.

They've been fighting for it long enough. The U.S. based North American
Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has been active for
decades.

A survey by the University of Lethbridge last year revealed support for
legalization has doubled in the last 25 years.

A change in Britain's laws last week to decriminalize pot got the spliff
and hookah set excited. Now with Cauchon's pronouncements, they can barely
contain themselves.

There's more organization than you would think behind the legalization
movement. Any mention of the subject by a news outlet draws dozens of
e-mails from all over the continent.

Just yesterday, I was sent copies of editorials from two major Canadian
newspapers supporting decriminalization. After this column appears, I'll
get dozens of e-mails -- most of them indignant and angry at my callous and
intolerant attitude.

I'll admit decriminalizing marijuana makes some sense.

Roughly 30,000 Canadians are charged with simple possession every year. The
harm done by saddling people with criminal records often exceeds the damage
done by using the drug.

Most unfair of all, police in different parts of the country enforce the
law differently.

The pro-dope advocates make some compelling arguments, such as the impact
of organized crime and relatively benign nature of the substance.

Their ultimate pipe dream is to see marijuana fully sanctioned and
available for sale at the corner store. The decriminalization and medical
marijuana issues are mere bandwagons for them to ride on their way to
achieving their goal.

While I back the regulated use of medical marijuana -- like any other
medically prescribed drug -- I personally believe blanket legalization
would be a tragic mistake.

Anyone who has known a chronic, heavy user can attest to the substance's
side effects -- lethargy, inability to concentrate, memory lapses.

A study published this spring in the Canadian Medical Association Journal
concluded that pot use drives down the IQ by four points. Fortunately for
the druggies, the same study revealed the IQ bounced back after use was
discontinued.

The researchers warned that multi-drug users and those who'd been toking
for decades couldn't count on the same recovery.

That's really the point here. Even though many Canadians have tried
marijuana during their lives, only a small percentage now use it regularly.

Even those sympathetic to pot smokers would have to admit this isn't such a
bad situation.

Right now marijuana use remains on the periphery.

To keep it that way, we must retain penalties that send a strong message
that drug use is harmful and not accepted by society.