Pubdate: Thu, 17 Oct 2002
Source: News, The (Mexico)
Copyright: 2002 The News
Contact: http://www.thenewsmexico.com/contact.asp
Website: http://www.thenewsmexico.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2513
Author: Tom Cohen, AP

CANADA'S POT PROPOSAL WORRIES UNITED STATES

TORONTO - American officials caution they may be forced to drastically slow 
trade across the northern U.S. border if the Canadian government relaxes 
its marijuana laws.

The changes being considered by Prime Minister Jean Chretien's government 
would make the penalty for getting caught with a joint similar to a traffic 
ticket.

By contrast, the zero tolerance policy of the United States makes 
possession of even small amounts illegal.

U.S. drug policy experts say decriminalizing marijuana in Canada will 
increase drug use in America and trafficking by organized crime elements on 
both sides of the border. Washington would respond with tighter border 
checks that could hinder trade crucial to the Canadian economy.

"We intend to protect our citizens. We would have no choice," said John P. 
Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The issue joins a growing list of differences between the North American 
neighbors that share the world's largest trade partnership, worth more than 
one billion dollars a day.

Despite their military ties and common democratic values, Canada has 
traditionally adopted more liberal social policies, in part to distinguish 
itself from its powerful neighbor. Examples include diplomatic ties with 
Cuba, a ban on capital punishment and more lenient immigration policies.

Canada already has a legal industry for hemp, cannabis cultivated with very 
low amounts of the chemical that produces the high sought by marijuana 
smokers. The U.S. government prohibits hemp production.

Last year, Canada implemented a medical marijuana program that allows some 
patients to possess and grow pot. The Canadian Supreme Court will hear a 
constitutional challenge to marijuana laws this fall, and a senate 
committee has called for the complete legalization of pot - a much more 
radical step than decriminalization.

Despite such signals, lawyer and medical marijuana advocate Alan Young said 
Canadians should wait before lighting that celebratory joint.

"It's actually going to be a longer battle than you think," he told a Sept. 
30 demonstration in Toronto by dozens of people seeking legal access to 
marijuana. "There's a lot of backward steps being taken."

Young cautioned the crowd that police had not let up against marijuana 
users. He cited police crackdowns in pot-rich British Columbia and other 
provinces, including a recent raid that shut down a Toronto club where 
doctor-certified patients could get marijuana.

He also said Canada has backed off from a plan to provide government-grown 
pot, though it allows approved patients to grow their own or designate 
someone to do so. He blamed the decision on American pressure.

Eight U.S. states have taken some kind of step toward permitting the 
medicinal use of marijuana: California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, 
Maine, Nevada and Colorado. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has ruled 
there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana, so even 
those with tolerant state laws could face arrest if they do.

Canada already is a major source of marijuana used in the United States, 
with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of dope with exotic names like 
B.C. Bud and Quebec Gold smuggled in everything from sod trucks to hockey 
equipment bags.

Decriminalization north of the border will create new headaches for the 
United States, said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the Government 
Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources.

"We're still finding it hard to believe this could actually happen," he 
said in a telephone interview, but added that if it does, tougher border 
security would follow.

"Probably it would be some sort of change in, at the very least, 
spot-checking, more aggressive checking, possibly background checking" of 
trucks and other vehicles crossing the border, he said. "Hopefully we could 
do it with not too much disruption, but there would be changes."

With pot valued on the street at about 3,000 dollars a pound or more, 
increased smuggling is almost a certainty, Souder said.

"You're basically becoming the supplier," he said. "You're kind of the 
wholesaler and our guys are more like the retailers."
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