cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Bill To Be Introduced Tuesday





Marijuana Bill To Be Introduced Tuesday
Posted by CN Staff on May 24, 2003 at 08:50:42 PT
By Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service 
Source: Ottawa Citizen 
The Justice Department will finally introduce its marijuana bill on Tuesday, after it was suddenly pulled earlier this month amid last-minute haggling within the Liberal ranks.The bill, which would decriminalize possession of less that 15 grams of marijuana, will dovetail with a new national drug strategy that will provide millions of dollars for drug education, prevention and treatment.
Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is expected to face dissent from police, who want marijuana possession to remain a criminal offence."We are completely against it," said Sophie Roux, spokeswoman for the Canadian Police Association.The association contends that marijuana leads to more serious drug use.People caught with less than 15 grams -- the equivalent of about 15 cigarettes -- would be ticketed as little as $100 for youths and $150 for adults.Under the new legislation, it would not be a crime to be caught with small amounts of marijuana while driving, mainly because there is currently no means of testing for marijuana impairment, unlike a breathalyser test for alcohol.The bill will also stiffen penalties against marijuana grow operations, which are springing up across the country, and instruct judges to treat drug traffickers harshly.Mr. Cauchon, who has admitted to smoking marijuana in the past, says that he is decriminalizing small amounts so that people won't be saddled with a criminal record. The bill is being introduced despite repeated warnings from the United States that decriminalization will lead to more intense border checks and delays. The Canadian Alliance -- and some backbench Liberals -- want the government to set the decriminalization amount at five grams.Note: Will decriminalize small amounts.Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)Author: Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service Published: May 24, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Ottawa CitizenContact: letters thecitizen.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmPot Decriminalization Fears 'Overblown': Experthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16331.shtmlLighter Penalties for Minors in Pot Billhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16309.shtmlStop The Reefer Madness http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16301.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 24, 2003 at 20:55:05 PT
Lehder 
You are very intelligent. I find it hard to say much about your comments because I am not that smart. I know that we are heading for trouble but I also know that it could take some time. I am a person who sees an end somewhere down the road but tries to slow up the process a little. I also believe that if good people don't try then we hand it over to those who don't care for others. I know that isn't very deep but that's how I think and why I keep doing what I do. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by Lehder on May 24, 2003 at 20:36:28 PT
Canada
Some of the bright and able commentators hereabouts have from time to time talked of their intention to run to Canada. I'm not sure that Canada will provide a secure haven for those dissenters over the long term, but I hope so, and I wish them well. If it were practical for me to become a landed immigrant, I most surely would have been a probationary Canadian by now. Moving to Canada is the right and smart plan, even though, and no one can say, you may eventually be ducking Blackhawk helicopters and looking for a warm ice cave somewhere on the forboding Canadian Shield.
Because I think that the election of 2004 has already been fixed and that when it is won, well, then the gloves will come off. After three years of learning most of what I could about the drug war, I am undissuaded from my initial suspicion that the US has embarked perhaps irrevocably upon a totalitarian course that if unchecked will culminate in genocide. I think that a sneaking genocide that takes many forms has already begun; a killing can sometimes take a few years instead of a few minutes in a gas chamber, but the victim is just as dead in the end. My suspicions were only reinforced by readings of Hannah Arendt and Thomas Szasz, the most influential for me among many others. And what I have seen of political developments over the past three years also only bolsters my worst expectations. We have addressed specifically the drug war, but I have never seen it as an issue that could be isolated from much broader developments. Our activist squeakings may not be much of a match against overwhelming historical forces, national myths, and the darker psyche of humankind. How I wish I could be proved wrong.Anis Shivani has written numerous articles that express and expand on my conception of our political future and that place it all in a historical context. I'll quote just one sentence from one of his essays:"In the near 
 future, America can be expected to embark on a more radical 
 search to define who is not part of the natural order: exclusion, 
 deportation, and eventually extermination, might again become the 
 order of things."and urge you to read on:http://www.counterpunch.org/shivani1026.htmlThere are more when you've finished:http://www.counterpunch.org/cgi-bin/htsearch?config=conf%2Fcounterpunch.org&words=Shivani+fascistOur lives are too brief. This place has probably improved my spelling and grammar, and it's been rewarding even though the war rages on. But I want to do what I like best and what I am best at, even if that's in an ice cave, and not be held in suspended animation by so many morons and bullies. I've said everything I know about the drug war at least a dozen times, and I'm gonna try real real hard to not look back here!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by The GCW on May 24, 2003 at 12:10:53 PT
Would police be happier...
if they were allowed to simply shoot people on the spot for being suspected of having trace elements of THC? "...dissent from police..." 
 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on May 24, 2003 at 10:10:23 PT:
CONSIDER THE HISTORY OF THE CANNABIS LAWS?
Back in 1973, either U.S. Senator Jacob Javits or Rep. Kastenmeier submitted a Bill which would have completely legalized pot possession in your own home. Then-U.S. Rep. Ed Koch submitted H.R. 432 which would have penalized possession up to a certain amount of pot a mere violation, only a $100 fine, not a crime. But then the Bush/Rockefeller power structure became more powerful, and all of the pot penalty reduction Bills were turned down. This is what we have now. "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini, www.fromthewilderness.com. "Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise." Francis Bacon.Consider the history of the Cannabis laws, www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html; www.jackherer.com; and the hypocrisy of the over $200 billion of drug money laundered thru Wall Street, each year, with impunity, by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, www.fromthewilderness.com; www.expertwitnessradio.org; while otherwise law abiding Americans are punished and vilified for Cannabis use? There should not be ANY laws against Cannabis, anywhere in the world! 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Virgil on May 24, 2003 at 09:06:25 PT
Why not set limit at -1 gram(negative 1)
The Canadian Alliance -- and some backbench Liberals -- want the government to set the decriminalization amount at five grams.Why not make it a negative 1 grams for arrest and jail. Then you could arrest anyone you wanted. What if it is five grams and the officer spits on it. What if it is 5 grams of cannabis soup? All they want is for people to use more gas and give them the jail option that forces the shakedown that will come with drug treatment. It is just a funnel for the racquets like law enforcement and drug testing and treatment programs.Wake up Canada you have been had by a hoax. Same goes true for the US and all the other rabied countries inflicted with cannabis prohibition.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment