Pubdate: Thu, 20 Feb 2003
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.fyiwinnipeg.com/winsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Frank Landry, Legislature Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

TRUSTEES URGE ANTI-POT STAND

Legal Marijuana Opposed

Some say it can free your mind -- but pot does nothing to help your brain, 
according to one Winnipeg school division.

The St. James-Assiniboia School Division is urging all Manitoba school 
trustees to support a resolution calling on their national body to oppose 
the decriminalization of marijuana.

"If there was significant liberalization, it might make things more 
difficult for students in school," said Bruce Alexander, chair of the St. 
James-Assiniboia board of trustees. "It occasionally leads to other 
substances that can be much worse for young people."

St. James-Assiniboia trustees last month unanimously passed a resolution 
asking the Canadian School Board Association to lobby Ottawa to maintain 
existing marijuana laws. They also want Ottawa to "reject any proposed 
relaxation" of the laws.

Before moving to the national stage, the resolution must be accepted by a 
majority of the province's elected school officials at the Manitoba 
Association of School Trustees' March 14 annual general meeting.

"It's their opinion (decriminalization) would make access to the drug 
easier, and they just don't agree with that," St. James-Assiniboia 
superintendent Ron Weston said of the trustees' resolution.

Alexander said his board was spurred into action after two separate cases 
dealing with marijuana possession were tossed out of Ontario courts last 
month. Both examples were widely taken as signs that Canada's pot laws were 
beginning to crumble.

A House of Commons committee has recommended that possession of 30 grams of 
pot should result in nothing more than a ticket and no criminal record. 
Thirty grams, about one ounce, of pot can produce about 50 joints.

READY TO ROLL

Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said he's ready to roll this 
year on the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use.

Carolyn Duhamel, executive director of MAST, said no other Manitoba school 
division has in recent memory brought forward a resolution dealing with pot.

"There's some pretty strongly divergent views on this particular issue," 
Duhamel said. "So it will probably make for some interesting discussion."

Drug use is not a big problem in St. James-Assiniboia, Weston said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager