Pubdate: Mon, 19 May 2003
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Tracey Tyler, Legal Affairs Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

DON'T BULLY CANADA, U.S. TOLD

Washington Wants Our Drug Law Changes Shelved Professor Says

American Should Mind Own Business

Canada shouldn't be "bullied" by the United States into shelving its 
proposed drug law changes, says a prominent Harvard University law professor.

Alan Dershowitz added in an interview in Toronto that the White House czar 
pushing Ottawa to scrap plans to decriminalize marijuana possession "should 
mind his own business.

"Our drug czar is causing enough problems in (the United States). He 
shouldn't be trying to expand the parameters of his negative effect into 
Canada," Dershowitz said.

"Canada is absolutely right in decriminalizing, or considering 
decriminalizing, possession of small amounts of recreational drugs and the 
United States has no business telling Canada what to do," he said. "We have 
been an utter failure in the United States in our approach to drug control 
and we should not be exporting bad policies."

The federal government plans to introduce legislation by the end of the 
month abolishing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of 
marijuana, making it an offence punishable by fine. The move is part of a 
new national drug control strategy expected to include tougher penalties 
for traffickers and the operators of marijuana "grow" operations.

But John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy, has been a vocal opponent of Ottawa's plan, predicting it 
will increase the "movement of poison" across the border and cause economic 
damage. Border traffic could be slowed because U.S. customs agents will 
have to conduct more searches, he said

Dershowitz said the border is already "pretty porous" and he sees little 
merit in Walters' concerns, but even if they come true "that's part of the 
problem of living in a multinational world."

Dershowitz, an outspoken champion of civil liberties, was in Toronto last 
Wednesday at the invitation of the Toronto branch of the Ben Gurion 
University Associates.

They hosted a luncheon to raise scholarship funds for students from the 
university who put aside their studies to serve in the Israeli military.

In an interview before speaking to about 250 people at the Windsor Arms 
hotel, Dershowitz said the United States telling Canada how to fashion its 
drug laws would be like Ottawa trying to ban American television programs 
that could run afoul of Canada's hate laws.

"The United States would say, 'No. We have the First Amendment. Our free 
speech rights are broader than yours and we're not going to take orders 
from you.'

"What if, for example, in the United States we were to abolish abortion, as 
some in the Bush administration would like to do?

"Would we ask Canada to abolish abortion too, just because there's a 
possibility that women might come over the border to have abortions? No. 
You're a sovereign country."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom