Pubdate: Mon, 16 Jul 2007
Source: Amherst Daily News (CN NS)
Copyright: Amherst Daily News 2007
Contact:  http://www.amherstdaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3379

POT NUMBERS CLOUDY

The numbers don't paint a clear picture of marijuana  use in this
country, but they're enough to make people  sit up and take notice at
least.

The UN's 2007 World Drug Report found 16.8 per cent of  Canadians
between the ages of 15 and 64 used pot in  2004 aE" the highest rate
among developed nations. By  comparison, 12.6 per cent of American
respondents said  they have tried pot. Britain (8.7), France (8.6),
Germany (6.9), and especially Japan (0.1) all reported  much lower
rates than Canada.

The stats don't tell us how many of those who admitted  using pot use
it regularly, occasionally or just  rarely. But it does suggest that
Canadians are  relatively open about acknowledging the substance as
relatively common and not the stuff of back alleys.

News of the higher-than-average use has people again  talking about
the relative illegality.

Senator Larry Campbell says too much time and effort is  being wasted
with criminal prosecutions for minor  amounts of the drug while
organized crime reaps massive  profits from the drug's cultivation.
Treat it like  alcohol with production controlled and sales regulated,
  the senator said, and "tax the hell out of it."

In contrast to an apparently increasing acceptance are  numbers
speaking of arrests. They went down a couple of  years ago when the
Liberals introduced a bill to  decriminalize small amounts. The Tories
when they came  to power scrapped the proposed legislation and
following that arrests for possession again spiked.

People might well ask whether said arrests are saving  people from
themselves or just sapping police energies  that could be used better
elsewhere.
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MAP posted-by: Derek