Pubdate: Thu, 05 May 2005 Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2005 The Sudbury Star Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608 DRUG USE AND THE COURTS In recent years, Canada's courts have all but given up trying to prosecute marijuana possession and the federal government continues to dangle a law that would decriminalize pot use. Both moves are widely accepted as necessary to avoid choking the courts with simple possession cases, the results of which would leave an untold number of otherwise law-abiding Canadians with a criminal record. It's curious, then, that federal drug prosecutor Robert Topp used a Sudbury courtroom as a pulpit earlier this week to rail against society's lack of understanding of the evils of marijuana abuse. Topp was moved to speak about the case of a local 22-year-old man convicted of breaking into a car and stealing some groceries and $2.50. It was the fourth conviction on drug or property charges since September for the man, who admitted a heavy addiction to marijuana. "Where oh where are those people who continually parade around our country and say that marijuana use doesn't cause any problems and is an absolutely safe drug," asked Topp during the hearing. To be sure, pot use is not without problems, and no one should be encouraged to use it. It's often labelled a gateway drug, or one that leads to other, harder drugs that come with far more serious side effects. But statistics clearly disprove the theory that all marijuana users are risks to move on to more insidious drugs. When the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee recommended in 1996 loosening possession laws, it estimated three million Canadians used marijuana and hashish recreationally -- an estimate they added was likely conservative. The overwhelming majority of these users resist the progression to harder drugs. In any case, harder drug use is not the problem Topp was referring to. Topp was concerned this man had an addiction that caused him to commit crimes. While perhaps true, it bears repeating that such cases are the exception rather than the rule. Very few of Canada's silent army of pot smokers face social or legal problems stemming from their use. No one says pot is an absolutely safe drug. Which is not to say marijuana use should be ignored. Findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year showed long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction. According to the study, marijuana use by teenagers who have prior antisocial problems can quickly lead to addiction. The study also found some teens cannot control their urges to seek out and use marijuana, even though it negatively affects their family relationships, school performance and recreational activities. But every drug has negative consequences, including many legal ones, including those prescribed by a physician. It is becoming widely accepted, for example, that the consequences of alcohol use (and abuse) are at least as damaging, if not more damaging, than smoking pot can be. That is the basis behind the push to decriminalize pot smoking in Canada and many other Western countries -- that it makes no sense to criminalize some behaviours and not others. In the end, the plea in the courts to consider the effects of marijuana use is a useful one -- but not in isolation. All drugs are bad when used to excess. Now that's something fro the courts to consider. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFLorida)