Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2002 The Sudbury Star Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608 Our Opinion: It's Time For The Federal Government To Decriminalize Recreational Marijuana Use THE POT THICKENS Canada's marijuana laws don't work. The country's police chiefs said so years ago. More recently so did the Senate's legal affairs committee and so do millions of Canadians who every day continue to blaze a trail and flout the law through their recreational use of marijuana. Now federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is gingerly adding his voice to the growing number of credible sources who think Canada's laws must be reworked. Cauchon is toying with decriminalizing marijuana use by making possession of small amounts of cannabis a ticketing offence, much like a traffic violation. To his credit, Cauchon has avoided jumping to conclusions about exactly what new federal legislation should do with marijuana, but he has clearly indicated that he finds the current law unacceptable. As it now stands, simple possession of marijuana is a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment. Believing this to be too harsh, the government is considering some form of decriminalization, though possession would still be illegal. Presumably, growing marijuana for commercial purposes in homes would remain illegal, as would trafficking marijuana. Cauchon's suggestion follows on the heels of Great Britain, which last week became the latest European country to relax its possession laws. There, police would arrest marijuana users only if they caused public problems or threatened to harm children. Other countries, such as the Netherlands, have gone even further in liberalizing marijuana laws. There are strong, well-known arguments for making reforms here. When the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee recommended in 1996 to change the law, it reported an estimated 3 million Canadians were using marijuana and hashish. That, they said, was strong proof the punitive approach had failed. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth