cannabisnews.com: Windsor Could Be Spot for Legal Pot 





Windsor Could Be Spot for Legal Pot 
Posted by CN Staff on September 06, 2002 at 13:02:07 PT
By Rodney Thrash and Free Press & News Services
Source: Detroit Free Press 
Imagine Windsor -- which already attracts hordes of Michiganders with its naked dance bars, legalized escorts and alcohol for 19-year-olds -- with Amsterdam-style legalized pot. Months after a top Canadian official recommended decriminalizing marijuana, a Senate panel recommended a far more sweeping change this week -- legalizing sales and use of marijuana and hashish to anyone over 16 and allowing Canadians to grow marijuana for their personal use. 
In a 600-page report released Wednesday, the Senate panel also recommended the government regulate sales and production of the drug, much as it does cigarettes and beer, and that it license distributors, tax the product and use some of the proceeds to pay for research on health effects, prevention and treatment. The Canadian government is expected to decide on the issue next year. Critics of legalization said the proposal could have widespread ramifications for the United States. Some U.S. politicians already are unhappy about the amount of Canadian-grown marijuana crossing the border. They said if Canada legalizes marijuana, the United States could be forced to clamp down on cross-border traffic. U.S. antidrug groups joined in, saying legalization in Canada could increase access to illegal drugs in the United States. Windsor has had a thriving downtown entertainment district since the early 1980s, partly by offering things that are banned in Michigan, like women and men dancing completely naked and municipally regulated escort services, which many say amount to legalized prostitution. Although local law enforcement agencies ranging from the Detroit division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to the Farmington Hills Police Department had not heard of the Canadian panel's recommendation on Thursday, at least one police official was quick to oppose the move. "We have a serious drug problem that has proliferated over the last three decades, and legalized marijuana use is not the solution to the epidemic of drug abuse," Farmington Hills Police Chief Bill Dwyer said. Dwyer is the immediate past president of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. "I could perceive that people would travel from the United States to use marijuana in the Canada," Dwyer added. Windsor officials could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington-based organization that advocates marijuana legalization, dismissed suggestions that marijuana deregulation will lead to moral degeneration. "I think that the notion that the society will develop moral turpitude is a pretty clear demonstration of their proprietary interests in the status quo," he said. The Senate panel recommendation comes as Canada grapples with what to do about increased use of marijuana and the organized crime groups that control Canada's multibillion-dollar pot industry. Illegal marijuana growing is a major industry in the western province of British Columbia, with much of the product exported to the United States. In July, Canadian Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said he was considering whether to decriminalize marijuana, making possession punishable with a fine instead of a criminal record. But the Senate's special panel on illegal drugs urged Cauchon to go much further. The Senate is Canada's unelected upper house of Parliament. "Essentially the committee recommends from now on that marijuana be legalized and available for restricted use, so Canadians can choose whether to consume it or not," said the committee chairman, Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin. Nolin said it was clear that prohibition was "a cop-out" that would never be effective. More than 20,000 people a year are arrested in Canada for using marijuana, but the committee said the continued criminalization of the drug was having no effect. "In a free society such as ours, it is up to each person to decide whether they want to use cannabis or not," Nolin said. "We do not want to encourage this consumption any more than we encourage the consumption of alcohol." Nolin said the panel concluded no evidence existed that marijuana was a so-called gateway drug -- one that leads to the use of harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin. "Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue," he said. Sen. Colin Kenny of the Liberal Party said the five-volume report, which the committee worked on for two years, had the committee's unanimous support. The United States disputed the report's findings that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. The White House said easy availability would increase addiction, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported Thursday in Toronto. "We know that marijuana is a harmful drug, particularly for young people," said John Walters, director of the U.S. National Drug Control Policy, in the statement. "We also know that if you make it more available, you'll get more marijuana use."Staff writer Bill McGraw contributed to this report. Note: Canadian plan would treat it much like beer. Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)Author: Rodney Thrash and Free Press & News ServicesPublished: September 6, 2002Copyright: 2002 Detroit Free PressContact: letters freepress.comWebsite: http://www.freep.com/Related Articles:Legalize Marijuana, Senate Committee Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13989.shtmlThe Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13987.shtmlPot Less Harmful Than Alcohol: Senate Report http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13986.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by CongressmanSuet on September 06, 2002 at 17:00:06 PT
No, they wont have the aneurisms...
 they are reserving them for US. Compassion Clubs in Ca going down without any local notice? Secret raids? No one knows but "Uncle Sam"? This is unbelievable. Seig Heil!!! Just imagine these people in prison? For some its a death sentence.
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Comment #2 posted by trainwreck on September 06, 2002 at 14:16:44 PT
Canada really is different
JVTHC: I work with Canadian scientists on occassion, on issues that in the US are typically met with fiery rhetoric and position statements (even from so-called scientists) and I find the Canadian way of doing business refreshing. Their basic idea is, hire a bunch of good scientists, put them in cushy positions, insulated (as much as possible) from politics, then let the scientists review the data and advise the policy makers in an unbiased fashion. The scientists are insultated from politics because their jobs don't depend upon what their reports say, because the politicians can't affect their opinions by threatening to cut their funding.Wow, science informs policy!!! 
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Comment #1 posted by jvthc on September 06, 2002 at 13:52:10 PT:
They're gonna bust.....
Walters and Hutchinson are going suffer a aneurysms trying to argue against the Canadian report!It's actually best that they've not read it yet (which, clearly, by their own statement's content they haven't). It leaves them unprepaired for the deep thinking that went into the Canadian report, and exposes them for it.After reading it (entirely, I point out), it's clear to me that the committee suffered through every argument we've heard in 30 years, and sought TRUTH (a foriegn word in most government bodies on this subject) as a resolution.They even had the courage to admitt truth they didn't want to hear.I wonder if our government representatives will have the courage to do even half that much.
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