Pubdate: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 Source: Halifax Daily News (CN NS) Copyright: 2000 The Daily News. Contact: http://www.hfxnews.southam.ca/ MARIJUANA RULING CHANGES `WAR' TOBACCO, AN addictive, health-harming, perfectly legal and highly taxable substance, makes an interesting contrast with marijuana, another cash crop but illegal and untaxed in all its forms, from trafficking across the border to possession of a few grams. If these leafy products were swapped, in terms of the application of the law, it would make more sense, at least as "recreational" drugs of wide choice. But common sense in dealing, so to speak, with a mild euphoric such as marijuana, and with those "hard" drugs linked to serious crime, violence and bodily risk, has been in short supply since the U.S. declared a war on drugs that itself became a growth industry. Public debate on the role of marijuana as an "entry point" to such undesirable habits as cocaine and heroin, and on the ill-effects of heavy use of pot, has a parallel argument in the use and abuse of alcohol. This product also requires using with discretion. But as police and social agencies well know, it triggers severe social problems and illegal acts when abused. In that context, smoking marijuana is low on the list of social evils, and in some countries is ignored as a criminal offence, or is legal within what amounts to minor possession. Addictions, in fact, are seen as medical rather than criminal problems. CANADA'S unequal sharing of the continent with the U.S. makes such decriminalization less feasible, assuming authorities want to concentrate more time, effort and money on major marijuana and hard-drug profiteers such as motorcycle hoodlums and ethnic gangs. The spark for change may have been given by the Ontario appeal court ruling in a medical-use case that the marijuana possession law is unconstitutional. This is because pot seems to be a useful medicine in certain chronic illnesses. More broadly, the decision could dump the law nationally. Support for de facto decriminalization of minor possession (under five grams) comes from the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs. Board member Edgar MacLeod, the Cape Breton regional police chief, says there are social consequences to using marijuana but they should not include people getting a lifetime criminal record in minor cases, nor distract the police and the courts from chasing criminals. This is not legalization. It is, however, a more sensible approach than the war-on-all-fronts that typifies today's law enforcement. A law on possession that is so widely broken and so lacking in endorsement from many senior police officers is in serious need of review, starting about now. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk