Canadian Panel Backs Legalizing Marijuana
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Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 6, 2002; Page A26
TORONTO, Sept. 5 -- A Canadian Senate committee has proposed that Canada legalize marijuana, allow it to be grown by licensed dealers and perhaps be sold in corner stores to people 16 or older. Such a policy would make Canada one of the world's most tolerant countries toward the drug.
In a report, the committee found that marijuana was less harmful than alcohol and should not be treated as a criminal problem, but as a public health issue. The report called for amnesty for people convicted of marijuana possession.
"Whether or not an individual uses marijuana should be a personal choice that is not subject to criminal penalties," Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin, chairman of the committee, said at a news conference. "But we have come to the conclusion that, as a drug, it should be regulated by the state much as we do for wine and beer."
It was not clear whether the committee's proposal would become law. But it nonetheless prompted a debate in Canada and the United States about whether it would promote drug use here and increase drug trafficking to the United States.
"Canada is a sovereign nation, of course," John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in a statement. "All I can talk about is our experience here in the United States with marijuana and the painful knowledge we've gained about its effects."
"We know that marijuana is a harmful drug, particularly for young people," he said. "We also know that if you make it more available, you'll get more marijuana use. More use leads to more addiction and more problems."
The Canadian Police Association denounced the committee's recommendations. "We've described this report as a back-to-school gift for drug pushers," said David Griffin, executive officer of the association, which represents 28,000 police officers.
Griffin said that Canada surpassed Mexico as a supplier of marijuana to the United States. "The more liberalized our drug laws, the more that industry will grow in producing drugs for the United States," he said.
He cited an international narcotics control board report that found that Canada produces 800 tons of the drug annually, of which more than 60 percent enters the illegal market in the United States.
Canada has long had a more tolerant approach to the drug than the United States. Police here often turn a blind eye to possession. And last year, Canada passed a law allowing people with serious illnesses to use marijuana for medical purposes if they obtained a government exemption.
Several groups in Canada praised the report, saying that prohibition of marijuana fuels crime. "With prohibition, we are giving a gift to organized crime," said Eugene Oscapella, a lawyer in Ottawa and a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, a research group. "The Senate evidence is quite clear -- the law has little impact on the way people use drugs."
"The Senate report is intelligent, rational and well-researched," he said. "It shows some politicians with spine."
The proposal now goes to the Canadian Senate for debate and to various ministries. Several ministry officials have said they will consider it, but some analysts have expressed doubt the plan will become law.
2002 The Washington Post Company