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.
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