Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 10:09:10 -0700 From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Canada: Legalizing marijuana reflects today's reality Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newshawk: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Pubdate: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 Legalizing marijuana reflects today's reality 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. Vancouver Sun 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. ------------------------------ _________ EcoNews Service - Alternative News: Ecology, Consciousness & Universe Politics mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] USA http://www.earthradioTV.com/index2.html CZECH http://mujweb.cz/www/ecologynews/ UK http://members.tripod.co.uk/ecologynews/ Canada http://www.ecologynews.com/index2.html <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
