Pubdate: Sat, 28 Apr 2001
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2001, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: William Johnson

WILL NO ONE RID US OF THIS TURBULENT LAW?

When will the madness end? No, not the escapades of Stockwell Day, 
but something far more serious: our laws on illicit drugs inherited 
from the 20th century but akin in spirit to the 14th century's witch 
burnings.

On Monday, criminologist Marie-Andree Bertrand appeared as a witness 
before the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs. She is 
professor emeritus at the University of Montreal's School of 
Criminology and was a commissioner on the Le Dain Commission that 
proposed in 1970: "No one should be liable to imprisonment for simple 
possession of a psychotropic drug for non-medical purposes."

"I counted 1,400 people who were imprisoned between last October and 
January, simply for possession of cannabis in Canada," she told the 
Senate committee.

So, in four months, 1,400 Canadians were locked up, with a criminal 
record for life, for having in their possession a substance that 
Canadian judges have recently declared to be less harmful than 
tobacco or alcohol.

This, for example, was part of the B.C. Court of Appeal's judgment 
last June in R. v. Malmo-Levine: "Every year, thousands of Canadians 
are branded with a criminal record for a remarkably benign activity, 
such as smoking marijuana."

Prof. Bertrand reviewed the evidence. "No fewer than 20 task forces 
were established by the governments of at least 10 countries to study 
cannabis and all psychotropic substances, their alleged effects and 
ways of controlling their use and trade. Two facts emerge from the 
reports of these commissions and committees: first, the virtual 
unanimity of their findings on cannabis and, second, the almost 
unanimous refusal of legislatures to act on the commissions' 
recommendations, except in the Netherlands."

Cannabis, best known as hemp or its derivatives hashish and 
marijuana, was studied by major commissions for more than a century, 
with always similar results. The latest major study, commissioned by 
France's health minister, was published in May of 1998. Though 
written in highly technical language, it generally gives cannabis a 
clean bill of health, recognizing its medicinal properties and 
dispelling the baneful myths that have grown up around it.

I have room for one quotation: "Cannabis possesses no 
neurotoxicity.... From that point of view, cannabis is utterly 
different from alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy and the psycho-stimulants, 
as well as some medications used by drug addicts."

Before the Liberal government brought in the current repressive law 
on drugs, it promised on Oct. 30, 1995, to create a full independent 
review of drug policy within one year of the law's coming into force. 
It was proclaimed in May of 1997.

Since then, courts in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta have 
called on Parliament to change the law. It was actually found 
unconstitutional last July 31 by the Ontario Court of Appeal because 
it deprived some sick people of a constitutional right to treat their 
illness with marijuana. The court gave the government a year to 
rewrite the law.

Instead, the government chose to change the regulations, without 
going to Parliament, leaving the law as it is. The Supreme Court of 
Canada, however, has said it will hear appeals of convictions related 
to marijuana. The highest court may well order Parliament to rewrite 
the law to bring it into conformity with the Charter of Rights.

Meanwhile, when Jean Chretien lays himself down to sleep tonight, I 
hope he will remember the thousands of Canadians going to bed behind 
bars because they possessed an essentially harmless substance, and 
all because his government refused to change a mad law.

Their disrupted lives are on his conscience.
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