Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Page: A15
Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: William Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm (Traffic)

LIGHT UP, INHALE, DECRIMINALIZE

Well, it's a start. Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon didn't just 
confirm that he's thinking of decriminalizing simple possession of 
marijuana. He actually confessed he'd smoked the stuff -- and made no 
excuses, no apologies, no silly evasions a la Bill Clinton. Remember? "I 
didn't inhale." (He didn't have sex with "that woman," either.)

Mr. Cauchon, when asked, took it for granted that he had tried pot. "Yes, 
of course. I'm 39 years old . . ."

Well, I'm more than 39 and I've tried pot, and so has almost everyone I 
know. It would help to put the debate in context if many more people from 
all walks of life -- responsible citizens, including judges and clergymen 
- -- were to acknowledge publicly that they had smoked pot without going on 
to inject heroin, and their lives would have been damaged had they been 
caught and convicted.

The Justice Minister floated a trial balloon, and now Ottawa will be on the 
watch for the reaction. If the police have their way with public opinion 
and ring the alarm with grotesque misinformation, as did the Canadian 
Police Association last year when it appeared before the Senate committee 
on illegal drugs, the Liberals will scurry for cover.

The police claimed, for example, that "violent crime in Holland is the 
highest in Europe and . . . the murder rate in Holland was three times that 
of the United States." The Netherlands was singled out as a horrible 
example of what could happen in Canada because people can smoke pot in 
cafes there or take home as much as five grams without being molested.

But, in fact, statistics published by the United Nations for 1998 showed 
that the male murder rate per 100,000 was 15.20 in the United States, 2.30 
in Canada and only 1.81 in the Netherlands. What had the police been smoking?

In its report for 2000, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug 
Addiction, an agency of the European Union, found the highest rates of 
problem drug use in Spain, Italy, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom, and 
the lowest rates in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden -- and the 
Netherlands.

If, on the other hand, public opinion shifts toward the view of the 
Canadian Medical Association Journal that it is unacceptable that 1.5 
million Canadians be stigmatized with a criminal record for possession of 
cannabis, the government will prove its readiness for reform when the 
Senate and Commons committees, each studying the question, report later 
this year.

Initial reaction in Canada's newspapers is encouraging. On Tuesday, the 
Montreal Gazette's lead editorial was headlined "Decriminalize it." Last 
Friday, Quebec City's Le Soleil greeted news that the United Kingdom would 
no longer impose jail sentences with a hope: "The time has come for Canada 
to modernize its approach to the use of soft drugs."

Yesterday, The Globe and Mail came out editorially for decriminalizing 
possession of pot, as did Montreal's Le Devoir, the Calgary Herald and the 
Ottawa Citizen, which exclaimed: "Go for it, Mr. Cauchon. It won't be just 
snowboarders who thank you."

The Edmonton Journal took a wait-and-see posture, but acknowledged: "In 
fact, experience in places as different as Australia and Switzerland show 
no evidence the use of cannabis rises when taken from the criminal code."

In the movie Traffic,the character played by Michael Douglas, placed in 
charge of enforcing U.S. drug laws, finally comes to realize that the war 
on drugs is a war against his and our children.

Will common sense and justice prevail in Canada?
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MAP posted-by: Jackl