SENATE SCORES

If the Senate is such an insult to our enlightened democracy, why did
Senator Pierre Claude Nolan just say some of the best things anyone has
said about marijuana in years?

First, the chairman of the Senate special committee on illegal drugs
admitted the obvious: that prohibition is not working. Up to half of all
15- to 24-year-olds have smoked pot. But then he went further, opening the
door to scrapping some of Canada's tough drug laws.

There's no scientific evidence that smoking marijuana leads people to try
harder drugs. So the senator rightly posed the question whether we should
treat marijuana like we do legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol.

The senator's remarks show that while it's easy to beat your chest and
chant "Death to drugs," it's also futile. Drugs have been part of
civilization since before mead. It's high time parliamentarians legalized
marijuana.