Pubdate: Fri, 07 Mar 2014
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Chris Selley
Page: A12

MARIJUANA REFORM'S NEWEST CONVERTS

Canadians don't much care about marijuana - or that's what pollster
Andre Turcotte told the Manning Networking Conference last weekend,
anyway. As part of his annual "barometer" poll, he compared the
priority issues of conservatives and Canadians in general in search of
areas of congruence and incongruence. Conservatives and other
Canadians are united in not prioritizing such issues as abortion,
"creating high quality jobs in [the] energy sector" and legalizing
marijuana, he reported.

To the extent people vote on the issues, you might think this was bad
news for Justin Trudeau. Politicians generally avoid talking up things
people don't care about. Tomorrow morning Mr. Trudeau could launch a
flat tax plan and commit a Liberal government to colonizing the moon,
and the Conservatives would probably still portray him as mainly
interested in helping your kids score weed - as the fretful mother in
a current Tory radio ad suspects.

Yet the Conservatives themselves seem oddly and increasingly seized of
reform. In December, Justice Minister Peter MacKay announced he was
considering allowing police to ticket offenders for small-scale
possession. And on Wednesday he announced his department was in fact
looking in to the matter. Legislation might even be
forthcoming.

"The prime minister has signalled an openness to this," he said. But
Mr. MacKay wants you to know it's not decriminalization. "The Criminal
Code offences would still be available to police, but we would look at
options that would give police the ability, much like the treatment of
open liquor, that would allow police to ticket those types of offences."

This is off message, to say the least. Firstly, the idea that
marijuana is much more dangerous than alcohol is integral to the
Conservative approach. "Imagine, making it available just like alcohol
and cigarettes!" the fretful mother in the radio ad swoons in shock at
Mr. Trudeau's proposal to legalize and regulate pot.

Secondly, Mr. MacKay seems to trust the justice system's discretion in
how to deal with marijuana possession. That's boffo. But he is
attorney-general of a government so distrustful of judicial discretion
that it implemented a six month minimum sentence for owning six
marijuana plants with intent "to sell, administer, give, transfer,
transport, send or deliver" any of the product.

Thirdly, Mr. MacKay can swear this isn't decriminalization until he's
blue in the face, but it really is - if not for everyone, then at
least for the beneficiaries of police forces' discretion. The U.S.
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
considers decriminalization to mean "no prison time or criminal record
for first-time possession of a small amount for personal consumption"
- - "like a minor traffic violation." Indeed, while Mr. MacKay sounds
less ambitious than certain Liberals did in the 2000s when they
stumped for decriminalization (by name), what he proposes sounds
fundamentally similar.

Most Conservative MPs must realize that prosecuting non-violent
marijuana related offences is a waste of resources. I dare say most
also suspect there would be far fewer violent marijuana-related
offences if its production and trafficking weren't the exclusive
domain of competing criminals - which is part of the case Mr. Trudeau
makes for legalization. But they must have realized that ages ago.

Precisely because of the case made by Mr. Trudeau - whom the Tories
want us to think flighty and ridiculous - and because few of us
consider this a top priority, it's hard to imagine the Conservatives
willingly flirting with reform. And considering their gleeful
lampooning of Mr. Trudeau's policy, it's not immediately clear why
they would consider it a threat.

But maybe it's not so much about Mr. Trudeau's policy per se as its
appeal to common sense. Decriminalization and legalization have many
supporters in all parties. But neither is as popular as the idea that
the status quo has utterly failed to keep marijuana away from
Canadians - least of all young Canadians, who lead the developed world
in consumption. Now here's someone finally promising something new and
bold.

Unlike decriminalization, legalization and regulation have the
potential to drive down consumption. But decriminalization would
provide an opportunity to punish pot-smokers more, and more
conspicuously: Whereas police discretion currently involves looking
the other way, going forward it might involve publicly cracking down
on a bunch of hippies and Liberal-voting trustafarians. If it's
surprising the Conservatives have finally concluded change is
necessary, that criminal sanctions can't do the job, this nevertheless
seems like a perfectly fitting replacement policy.
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MAP posted-by: Matt