Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jul 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Section: Week in Review
Author: Clifford Krauss
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

CANADA: THERE'S A FUNNY SMELL IN THE AIR

THE big scoop in the Canadian news media last week came when a reporter 
asked Justice Minister Martin Cauchon if he had ever smoked marijuana.

"But of course," replied Mr. Cauchon, Canada's top law enforcement officer. 
"I'm 39 years old." Smiling, he was quick to add that he had given it up.

On the other end of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, another group of dogged 
reporters couldn't help but ask Prime Minister Jean Chretien if he had ever 
smoked the stuff.

"When I was young the word mari-uh, did not exist," the 68-year-old Mr. 
Chretien said. "I learned about the word long after that. It was too late 
for me to try it." A reporter was quick to interject: "It's never too late, 
prime minister."

All the banter about marijuana use comes at a time when Canadians are 
talking about decriminalizing pot smoking. It seems only natural that now 
that Britain decided last week to make possession of a small amount of 
marijuana a ticketing offense, that its liberal former colony would soon 
follow suit. Pot smoking is pervasive in Canada, after all, especially in 
British Columbia, which is also a major production source of marijuana sold 
in the United States. Marijuana use is so prevalent in Vancouver that the 
city has been compared to Amsterdam as a pot-smoker's paradise.

The House of Commons is not currently in session. But Mr. Cauchon has 
suggested that the country should rethink laws that make marijuana illegal 
and crowd court calendars with pot-smoking cases.

The Toronto Star agreed in an editorial last week, saying: "Marijuana 
remains a vice, like drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes. It would be 
better handled through public education, not by giving people criminal 
records."

Still, Canadian opinion makers are wondering what the Americans will say. 
With relations with the Bush administration already on edge over increased 
American tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, some Canadians think 
Washington could retaliate against any softening of Canadian anti-pot laws 
by tightening the border.

"Would softer pot laws stir wrath of U.S.?" asked the headline of an 
article in The Globe and Mail, a prominent national newspaper. "The 
neighbors are likely to yell," came the answer, "but not everybody thinks 
that's the end of the world."
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