ANTI-POT EFFORTS 'USELESS'

OTTAWA -- Efforts to prevent marijuana use are having little impact, and
young Canadians are smoking up in greater numbers than ever, a Senate
report says.

An estimated 30 to 50% of people 15 to 24 years old have used cannabis
despite its illegality, the report, released yesterday by the Senate
committee on illegal drugs, says.

"When you examine cannabis usage among youth, you realize that public
policy has absolutely no effect," Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, committee
chairman, told a news conference.

"The psychology of adolescents seems to take no account of the rules of law."

After studying the pros and cons of pot use for 14 months, the committee
also concludes that scientific evidence suggests marijuana isn't a
so-called gateway drug that leads to the use of harder drugs.

Millions Wasted

The discussion paper, intended to guide public consultation on the
marijuana issues, indicates that millions of dollars in public money being
spent to combat pot is wasted.

The arguments in the paper are far from new -- many were made in the Le
Dain report of 1973.

Yet the federal government has been reluctant to change the law, and Health
Minister Anne McLellan has backtracked from a plan to give severely ill
patients access to government-grown marijuana.

There's a widespread perception that the federal government is reluctant to
decriminalize pot because of opposition from the United States, which
remains committed to prohibition.

The Nolin committee raises that issue in a questionnaire it will submit to
participants in consultations planned for six Canadian communities in
coming weeks.