Pubdate: Wed, 24 Oct 2001
Source: Independent, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2001 Conolly Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.eastnorthumberland.com/thisweek.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1596

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.
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