Pubdate: Tue, 21 Sep 2004
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Jody Pressman
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1327/a09.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

NEED HOMEMADE SOLUTION

Take Drug Out Of The Hands Of Untaxed Sources and Put It To Work For The 
Canadian People

Re: White House lashes Canada's pot laws, Sept. 17.

We have had decade after decade after decade of enforcing our United 
States-fashioned drug laws and waited for the promised results. What do we 
have to show for all those years of enforcement and tax dollars? More 
Canadians are using marijuana than ever. More Canadians are growing 
marijuana than ever. For every grow-op police bust, 10 more spring up, and 
even by their own admission, police say they couldn't keep up with all the 
marijuana grow-ops springing up if they wanted to.

The real problem with our marijuana laws and the weak and inadequate 
Liberal decriminalization bill is our abdication of regulatory control and 
tax revenue from marijuana. In the face of bold new evidence and reports 
from the Senate , the Fraser Institute and recent Statistics Canada 
figures, it is time Canadian legislators turned their ear away from the 
needs of the White House and toward what is best for the Canadian people.

While the Canadian government reaps profit in the millions off 
intoxicating, addictive, and more harmful substances like alcohol and 
tobacco, it still has not come to the conclusion that millions of other 
Canadians already have: We should take marijuana out of the hands of 
untaxed sources and put it to work for the Canadian people and adopt the 
same approach we use with tobacco and alcohol. Regulation would allow us to 
keep marijuana out of the hands of children using the tools to restrict 
sales to minors. Our current approach clearly has not worked.

In 2002 a Senate committee unanimously concluded Canada should regulate and 
tax marijuana, treat it as a public health issue and not a criminal issue, 
and that marijuana is significantly less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.

A recent Statistics Canada study revealed that more than 10 million 
Canadians have used marijuana in their lifetimes and that more than 3 
million Canadians regularly use marijuana. With numbers such as these we 
simply cannot afford to continue to take damaging domestic policy 
recommendations from the United States. With the evidence that Canada is a 
small-time supplier of marijuana to the U.S., it is curious indeed why the 
White House continues to take such an active interest in Canadian marijuana 
laws.

The majority of Canadians want a made-in-Canada solution to our marijuana 
laws and do not want to see us continue or worsen a regime which continues 
to funnel billions of untaxed dollars into the ether. The longer we ignore 
this growing green elephant in the room, the more taxes Canadians will pay, 
the more Canadian law enforcement resources will be wasted on a futile U.S. 
"War on Drugs" that even Canadian police admit they have lost and cannot 
win, and the billions of dollars annually in untaxed revenue handed to 
organized crime.

As Parliament returns in a minority government situation, I would strongly 
urge all legislators to take advantage of this opportunity to pass a strong 
piece of legislation that would legalize marijuana and stop encouraging the 
illicit sale and production of marijuana in Canada.

Jody Pressman, Executive Director, NORML Canada, Ottawa
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager