CANADA'S BIG DRUG PROBLEM: THE LAW

Due to a local police action last weekend, 56 people who suffer from
apparently incurable diseases, and who have all been given the legal
right to consume marijuana to ease their afflictions, are once again
without any legal source for their medicine.

But heavy-handed though the drug raid may have been, a good case can
be made that the OPP were just doing their job, and that the real
culprit is the bizarrely inadequate framework of Canadian justice
regarding psychoactive substances.

The weekend bust involved Lady Dyz Helping Hands, a Cramahe Township
gardening operation profiled in our October 10 issue. The operation
was above-board, and all those involved had filled out forms in an
effort to comply with new federal provisions for the legal use of
medicinal marijuana. But after the raid, police stated that the 40
pounds of seized marijuana had a "street value" of $80,000. And even
though the herb was not, by all accounts, destined for "the street,"
police may have rightly feared that the presence of such valuable, and
easily saleable, substances in a rural farmhouse could result in a
violent break-in.

Of course, there is only one reason that the herb commands an
astronomical price, and only one reason why so much of the supply is
distributed by gun-wielding gangs: because it is illegal. The health
problems caused by marijuana are dwarfed by the crime problem -- the
murderous struggles between rival drug lords, and the thefts and
break-ins committed by users trying to acquire a ridiculously-priced
herb. And the crime problem could be solved with the stroke of a
legislative pen, if only Canada's government had the courage to enact
a common-sense solution.

Instead, we have the current well-meaning but ridiculous stopgap
measure, which theoretically makes it possible for desperately ill
people to use marijuana as medicine. The relief remains elusive,
because as long as the drug remains generally illegal, its street
price remains sky-high. Therefore any growing operation will attract
the attention of criminals, and must also attract the attention of
police forces.

In the current legal context, with medical marijuana gardens facing
such dangers, police drug squads should be given a special mandate to
protect these operations, rather than seeking out technical excuses to
shut them down. Without such legal protection, the medical marijuana
provisions in Canadian law remain a cruel hoax.