cannabisnews.com: Rock Open To Debate on Pot Legalization Rock Open To Debate on Pot Legalization Posted by FoM on May 24, 2001 at 08:04:25 PT By Kevin Dougherty Source: Montreal Gazette Maybe it's something in the air. A month ago, clouds of tear gas billowed through Quebec City. But now that the Summit of the Americas is memory and rain has washed its vestiges away, visiting federal politicians are choosing the Old Capital to come out on the issue of marijuana. On Tuesday, Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark said here that he favours decriminalizing the drug, instead making marijuana possession a civil offence, like a traffic violation. Yesterday, Health Minister Allan Rock said he would "participate with enthusiasm" in planned House of Commons hearings into the possible decriminalization or even legalization of "mari," as he described it, using the familiar French term for "pot." "It (legalization) is one of the things that will be discussed by the committee, I am sure, and I will participate with enthusiasm," Rock told reporters. The minister was at Universite Laval to announce $82.6 million in grants for medical research projects to 21 universities and teaching hospitals in the province, when reporters asked him for his position on the legalization of marijuana. Rock noted that, as health minister, he made marijuana legal in Canada for medical purposes and, when committee hearings on non-medical use of marijuana were proposed, he agreed. "I think that now is an appropriate time to study all that to determine if we as a country, if we have an approach and appropriate policy to favour people's health." While he stopped short of advocating legalization, saying he does not want to prejudge the work of the committee, Rock recalled that it has been 30 years since the LeDain Commission on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs recommended decriminalization of marijuana and the possibility of its gradual legalization. The Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, which named the LeDain Commission, did not carry out those recommendations. "I think things have changed since LeDain, but as I say, I don't want to prejudge a process that is just now getting started," Rock said. "I think the committee will look at all options. As far as I am concerned at Health Canada, my focus has been on medical marijuana and making that available, because I think there are strong reasons on compassionate grounds to make medical marijuana available, which we have done." Rock also noted that a Senate committee, headed by Tory Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, is already looking into the legalization of marijuana. The minister has only smiled when asked whether he ever smoked marijuana, but in 1969 as president of the University of Ottawa students' union, he invited Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono to Ottawa after their week-long bed-in for peace at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Lennon openly embraced the use of pot. Clark and Rock appear to be joining a groundswell of support for at least decriminalizing pot. Justice Minister Anne McLellan said Friday she is open to such a debate. On Tuesday, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein said he's willing to discuss softening Canada's laws against pot. Like Clark, Klein made it clear his position is a personal one, not necessarily shared by his party colleagues. But popular opinion appears to have shifted. A new national survey by University of Lethbridge sociologist Reg Bibby shows 47 per cent of Canadians now favour the drug's legalization, compared with 30 per cent in the mid-1970s and mid-1990s. The $82.6 million in medical research grants Rock announced yesterday for Quebec institutions is part of a $234-million commitment by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to institutions across the country. Laval's share is $15.8 million. "We talk about the brain drain. We talk about keeping our best and brightest in Canada," the health minister said. "The way we do that, it seems to me, is by investing in our universities, in our researchers, and that's what today is all about." Note: Committee likely to study 'all options'The Gazette; CP contributed to this reportSource: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)Author: Kevin DoughertyPublished: Thursday 24 May 2001Copyright: 2001 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.Contact: letters thegazette.southam.caWebsite: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Health Canadahttp://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/Canadian Medical Association Journalhttp://www.cma.ca/cmaj/Soft Drugs and Hard Crimehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9850.shtmlClark: Decriminalize Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9842.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by blaze on February 25, 2002 at 07:20:48 PT don't forget taxes If any makes pot legal Tax on it will be anormus and yes u can tax it in stores or if the store don't sell they will make you get license to sell it with the tax on it. to even have the stuff to smoke you will have to get if you don't get a license they still raid take your green and sell themselfs JDZ [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by John Heger on September 16, 2001 at 19:02:16 PT: I have some ? I have to do a paper on whether pot should be legalized or not. I must provide arguments from both sides. My question to you is do you believe it is a gate way drug. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by QuietCrusader on May 25, 2001 at 23:26:06 PT: Legalization Consensus GrowingFrom The News of Mexico CityBy REED LINDSAY The News Staff Reporter The U.S.-led war on narcotics has long made talk of drug legalization strictly off-limits for Mexican politicians. But a rising tide of voices calling for the decriminalization of drug use may augur a sea change in the way drug policy is formulated in the United States and throughout Latin America. In the past two months, the Chihuahua state governor and a high-ranking federal police official have remarked on the failure of anti-narcotics enforcement and the possible benefits of legalization. Moreover, in March, President Vicente Fox, despite his January pledge to wage "a war without mercy" on drugs, told a Mexico City daily he agreed that legalizing narcotics was the only way to win such a battle. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday told a House of Representatives subcommittee that drug-fueled conflict in Andean nations is caused "by what is happening on the streets of New York, on the streets of all our big cities." While not raising the issue of legalization, Powell blamed U.S. demand for his nation's drug problems. Colombian Leads Call For Change "There are encouraging signs, not only in countries such as Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, but also with increasing frequency in the U.S.," said Colegio de Mexico Professor and former Colombian Ambassador to Mexico Gustavo de Greiff, a leading advocate of legalizing drugs. "Voices are calling for a change in policy, not only for the failures this policy has had, but for the tragedies it has caused." Appointed as Colombia's attorney general in 1993, De Greiff cracked down on drug lords in his South American nation, eventually leading the effort to hunt down and kill kingpin Pablo Escobar. Such efforts won him U.S. media attention and glowing tributes from Washington policymakers. Shortly thereafter, De Greiff began speaking out in favor of legalizing drugs in the United States as the only means of ending the violence and corruption wracking his country. Within months, he was accused by U.S. authorities of writing a letter defending a Medellin cartel drug smuggler, and his visa was revoked, quickly ending his tenure as the top Colombian prosecutor. De Greiff maintains the charges were fabricated to discredit his pro-legalization stance. The U.S. Embassy on Friday declined to comment on his visa status. "I was the only public servant that dared to speak out about legalization and the U.S. government thought this was dangerous," he said. "It was the most immoral form of politics you can imagine." But political winds may be changing. Attending Fox's December inauguration, Uruguyan President Jorge Batlle became the first head of state in the Americas to proclaim his support of drug legalization in an interview with the Spanish-government news agency EFE. Although his comments were given sparse attention by the international media, they since have been echoed by prominent Mexican politicians. Most recently, in an interview with a Mexico City newspaper, Chihuahua Gov. Patricio Martinez, who in January was shot in the head by an ex-policewoman suspected of being linked to organized crime, urged serious consideration of Republican New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson's pro-legalization proposals. Johnson has pushed legislation to legalize marijuana for medical purposes and to decriminalize possession of small amounts of the drug. Two weeks before Martinez's remarks, Miguel de la Torre, director of support for Mexico's Federal Preventative Police (PFP), told government news agency Notimex that legalization was the only solution to the drug problem. Responding to De la Torre's comments, Fox was quoted as saying "humanity someday will see that (legalizing drugs) is best." While such statements do not reflect his administration's official stand, they resonate with ideas expressed in the past by Public Security Secretary Alejandro Gertz Manero and by Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Castaņeda, who have criticized the drug war and argued the merits of legalization. Latin American Hoping For U.S. Support Propelled by the box office success of last year's Oscar-winning film "Traffic," there has been a growing recognition among some Washington politicians of failures in the supply-oriented drug war and the need to direct greater resources to treating drug consumers in the United States. "Fox can play a role in helping to catalyze a change in emphasis from supply to demand," said David Borden, executive director of the D.C.-based Drug Reform Coordination Network. "But I'm not that optimistic our current administration will do that much. And without substantial change in the United States, it becomes very hard for other countries, particularly our neighbors, to change." While battling demand is being given more weight in the United States, the Bush administration and the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress have shown no signs they are willing to countenance a debate on legalization, analysts have said. And without such willingness by Washington policymakers, they say, Mexico and other Latin American countries have little leverage to take the initiative on legalizing drugs. "The possibility of a debate about legalization is beginning to come alive," said De Greiff. "But we're dealing with a multilateral problem with many nations and the most powerful in the world, the U.S., will use all of its force to prevent one country from making a unilateral decision." Narco News [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by QuietCrusader on May 25, 2001 at 18:43:44 PT: There WILL be victims of cannabis legalization... oil industry, cotton industry, timber industry, tobacco industry, chemical industry(hemp needs no pesticides and very few chemicals to process into paper products), the so-called "Drug Enforcement Agency", prison industry, etc... The war on drugs would be laughable without the prohibition of cannabis. Read about legalization movements South of the border [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Arley on May 25, 2001 at 08:30:35 PT: LEGALIZE MARIJUANA!!! I think people should just stop making such a big fuss about pot. So what, some people do it, some don't. But the people who do it are still finding ways to get it, it's still around and everybody knows it. The cops know it, the government knows it, just quit maiking a big deal out of it and let people do it. It doesn't hurt you any more than alcohol does, as far as impairing your ability to do things, and when people are high off of it, they know their high, just like people who are drunk know they're drunk. Yeah, people drive drunk everyday, but nobody has made it illegal. Marijuana has nevet hurt anybody as much as alcohol has, so what's the problem. LEGALIZE MARIJUANA!!!! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Burn1Down on May 25, 2001 at 05:41:17 PT: Oh Canada! It's about time, if we (Canada) didn't live next to the US Herb would already be legal. Americans always talk about freedom, but don't seem to practice what they preach.It's time for Canada to shine as a beacon for freedom and personal choice!Keep the herbs Organic!Peace, [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by military officer guy on May 24, 2001 at 19:43:29 PT amen... amen kapt, can not f #$ing wait for our politicians to finally get a clue...i'm thinking of packing up and joining the canadian military...we can win this war...looks like canada already did... [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on May 24, 2001 at 11:45:21 PT: Something real interesting going on Friends, have you noticed something?In the previous articles about the Canadians engaging in this monumentally important debate, there's not a single, solitary reference to what possible repercussions this might have with the Wonks of Washington!In other articles we've seen published in the Canadian press in the past, there was always that cloud of US intransigence threatening to rain on their proceeedings. The pols Up There were always mindful of what growls they might hear from the Shijthuis-on-the-Potomac. But lately, there's been hardly a mention at all. Not a peep from the pols Up There. Nothing from their media. Silence.I say, about damn' time! Long past time the Canucks flipped DC the bird and went their own way. As I said before, if there's no interference from Washington DC, Canada will be the first nation in the Western Hemisphere with a sensible cannabis policy.I can hardly wait. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: