LOCAL RESIDENTS SUPPORT DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA

Ottawa residents almost unanimously called for the decriminalization of
marijuana last week at a town hall meeting.

Ottawa Centre Liberal MP Mac Harb, organized the meeting as part of a
government sponsored nation-wide consultation on non-medicinal drug use.

"I was absolutely surprised to tell the truth," he says. "I never ever
thought we would have such unanimity on this."

In May 2001, a House of Commons special committee was formed , and it is
preparing to release a full report next November.

The opinions and recommendations gathered from these town hall meetings
will be an integral part of the report, says Harb.

The meeting was intended to discuss the use of all non-medicinal drugs, but
participants kept the debate firmly centered on the issues surrounding
marijuana.

The vast majority of the 40 residents in attendance supported
decriminalization, while only about half supported legalization.

To many, these terms seem synonymous, but the House of Commons committee
makes a point of emphasizing the difference between the two options.

Decriminalization would take the possession and selling of marijuana out of
the Criminal Code and make it either a civil offence or not an offence at all.

Legalization means the government can regulate the sale and use of the drug
by growing it and distributing it.

The government currently allows medicinal marijuana use on a case-by-case
basis, but many say the process of obtaining it is too complicated.

Arlene Moke who attended the meeting, is concerned about the delay.

"It's just nonsense," The government has to do something and they have to
do it pretty fast," she says.

Moke volunteers at the Needle Exchange Program and she works with a lot of
people who live with AIDS.

She says that smoking marijuana helps to stimulate the appetite.

"When they smoke marijuana they're able to relax, they're able to eat
again," she says.

Jack McCarthy, another resident at the meeting agrees marijuana must be
made more readily available for medical purposes.

"We have to decriminalize it for people going through cancer treatments and
things like that," he says. "It has to be done if on no grounds other than
compassion."