Pubdate: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2002 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Sean Gordon Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?218 (Canadian Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs) STOP THROWING CASH INTO POT POLICING: SENATOR Calls Drug Abuse A Public-Health Issue. Head Of Panel Backing Marijuana's Legalization Says Penal Measures Have Limited Benefits Marijuana prohibition is a costly failure and the federal government shouldn't throw good money after bad by increasing law-enforcement budgets, says the chairman of a Senate committee that recommends the drug be legalized. Senator Pierre-Claude Nolin said the only way to stem drug use in Canada is to approach substance abuse as a public-health issue, not a policing one. "Penal measures have their place. But why do they take up so much room in our drug strategies? They are of limited use, and they create more negative effects than benefits," said Nolin, who yesterday addressed a plenary session of World Forum 2002, a conference on drugs and dependencies taking place at the Palais des Congres. "Some might say it's immoral to allow children access to psychoactive substances. It's also immoral to encourage organized crime by making those substances illegal," he said. Nolin admitted legalization of marijuana probably would increase the number of users, but suggested any increase would be short-lived. He argued that legalization would afford more control over marijuana than current laws allow, and would also allow for more effective prevention methods. Nolin also pointed out that so far, laws haven't deterred the estimated 225,000 Canadians age 12 to 17 who smoke pot regularly. "We're not promoting the use of marijuana, we're simply acknowledging it," he said. Daniel Sansfacon - who served as the Senate committee's director of research - told the plenary that the utopian idea of a drug-free society is dead and gone, and that laws and policy need to take social realities into account. The report, recently made public, was panned by several major law-enforcement associations, including the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. Several police officers at this week's conference have said the government needs to enact stiffer sentences for pot growers and dealers, and pour more money into "supply control" to enforce existing laws. "It's our job to apply the law as it exists," Inspector Freddy Foley of the Surete du Quebec told a workshop on Tuesday. "If society gets its act together and decides we no longer want these laws, fine. Until then, we have to enforce the law, and right now we don't have all the means to do it adequately." Nolin's conclusions have also drawn fire from other quarters, as was evidenced during the question-and-answer session that followed the plenary. Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has stopped short of endorsing the Senate committee's recommendations, but he has suggested legislation could be tabled as soon as this fall to decriminalize marijuana possession. Nolin, a Conservative appointed to the Senator in 1993 by Brian Mulroney, also took the international community to task for continuing to support anti-drug laws. "We can blame international treaties. These treaties penalize countries in the southern hemisphere that produce source plants, but they encourage production of chemicals from those same plants by pharmaceutical countries in the north." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom