cannabisnews.com: Legalizing Marijuana Reflects Today's Reality Legalizing Marijuana Reflects Today's Reality Posted by FoM on August 09, 2000 at 10:11:13 PT Editorial Source: Vancouver Sun Prohibition is not working and decriminalizing the drug will bring new problems. There will be adjustment pains, but allowing its manufacture and use will bring major pluses. In 1995, the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse researched illicit drugs and reported: "The current law prohibiting cannabis possession appears to have had a very limited deterrent effect." So it's fair to ask, if prohibition hasn't reduced the use of marijuana, what has it done? In that year alone, 63,851 Canadians were prosecuted for drug offences, two-thirds of them marijuana charges. About half were for simple possession -- somebody had a little bit for personal use. Yet the government's cost of pursuing these mostly trivial cases was, figured conservatively, more than $200 million. The number of marijuana charges is still rising despite reluctance in many police jurisdictions to do more than confiscate small amounts, and our laws have made criminals of hundreds of thousands of Canadians. It has created an underground criminal industry to supply what even our courts describe as a benign, nearly harmless intoxicant that has well-documented medicinal properties. There are two options for amending marijuana law -- decriminalization of simple possession, or outright legalization. The first is the popular choice among Canadians and one the federal LeDain Commission proposed more than a quarter-century ago. It would remove the penalties for having marijuana but create an institutionalized oxymoron -- legal to buy, illegal to sell. Anyone familiar with our prostitution laws -- under which selling sexual acts and paying for them are legal, but both parties can nevertheless be arrested -- would advise against more of the same. So the status quo does not work. Decriminalization will not work. The unavoidable answer is to legalize marijuana. It's naive to imagine this can be done without difficulty. But hardly any of the problems will be new -- they exist now, although under the table. How will we determine a safe level of blood-THC for driving? How do we regulate its growing and manufacture? (And how does a government seemingly determined to kill the tobacco industry give approval to another smokable plant product?) Who will sell it? Where? To whom? And, in the world of realpolitik, what will the neighbours -- the United States -- say if we legalize a drug they are committed to eradicating? These problems are real and difficult, but legalization has a couple of big pluses. First, the potential tax revenue would more than pay for the administration of legal marijuana (with much left over). And, most importantly, legalizing marijuana would remove the criminal element from its production and distribution, by regulating the industry along the same lines as most other adult vices. Ontario Justice Marc Rosenberg, in a judgment that struck down the simple possession law last month, said: "This is a matter for Parliament." He's right, and the clock is ticking. Contact: sunletters pacpress.southam.caAddress: 200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3Fax: (604) 605-2323 Published: August 9, 2000Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 2000Related Articles:Decriminalizing Marijuana A No-Brainerhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6629.shtmlRewrite Law on Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6589.shtmlCourt Strikes Down Marijuana Possession Law http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6577.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on August 09, 2000 at 13:12:07 PT: The Great White North leads the way! Thank you/Merci beaucoup, Canada!I've always felt that some other nation besides the US would eventually start the dominoes to falling over prohibition. Had to, really; our pols are so stuck in their ways that they require liberal applications of a 2X4 to wake them from their DrugWar wet-dreams. I sincerely hope the Canucks can do it by just allowing a stupid law to die the quietly ignominious death it deserves. For extra fun, it'll be interesting to watch the DrugWarriors have foaming fits. You can expect to hear all manner of nonsense about trade embargoes, certifications, and all the other rot. Yep, if they do flip Uncle sam the bird and pull it off, I know where I'll be spending my vacations. Orillia is beautiful in the autumn. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by observer on August 09, 2000 at 10:48:06 PT Criticism ... None! They done good.... a little bit for personal use. Yet the government's cost of pursuing these mostly trivial cases was, figured conservatively, more than $200 million. I am so glad to see them mention this cost! I hope other papers will continue to try to put prohibition in context like this. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by greenfox on August 09, 2000 at 10:32:36 PT this article sanity...finally. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on August 09, 2000 at 10:31:53 PT: Oh, Canada! Bingo! If only a few politicos in the USA felt this way! Maybe the opinion will become contagious, but then it took this country a long time to recognize Africans as more than 3/5's human, or women as worthy of the right to vote. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: