JUST SAY NO

The Canadian Medical Association is to be commended for making the
case for marijuana decriminalization (Canadian Doctors Want Marijuana
Decriminalized, March 12).

There is no evidence that zero tolerance actually decreases use.
Based on findings that criminal records do more harm than marijuana,
a majority of European Union countries have decriminalized soft drugs
such as marijuana. Despite harsh penalties and perhaps because of
forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the
United States than in any European country.

While Canada increasingly favours sensible public health approaches
to drugs, the culture wars are heating up in the United States.
President Bush is now pushing "compassionate coercion" for users of
non-traditional drugs, with millions of cannabis smokers the likely
target of his "compassion." Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful
if abused, but arrests and forced treatment are hardly appropriate
health interventions.

Diet is the number one determinant of health outcomes. Do we really
want the government monitoring everything that goes into our bodies?
And if it is the proper role of government to punish citizens for
unhealthy choices, why target marijuana? Unlike alcohol, marijuana
has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share
the addictive properties of nicotine.

Unfortunately, cannabis represents the counterculture to misguided
reactionaries intent on forcibly imposing their version of morality.
The United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the
world, in large part due to the intergenerational culture war
otherwise known as the war on some drugs. Canada should Just Say No
to the American Inquisition.

Robert Sharpe, program officer, Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.