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Time to reform marijuana laws
By Hempology | July 22, 2002
The penalties for using pot are more harmful to society and individuals than
smoking it
From The Times Colonist, July 22, 2002
Quebec MP Martin Cauchon admits smoking marijuana. “I’m 39 years old. Yes, of course I
tried it before, obviously. My experience can’t tell you if it’s harmful or not.”
It couldn’t have been that harmful – he’s now federal minister of justice, the man
ultimately in charge of enforcing Canada’s anti-marijuana laws.
Pot apparently wasn’t that harmful to Industry Minister Allan Rock, a former justice
minister, who (while touring a medical marijuana grow-op last year) all but admitted
he’d indulged: “As a former attorney-general of Canada, I’m keenly aware there’s
a right against self-incrimination in this country. And I fully intend to invoke that
right.”
Pot wasn’t that harmful for Alberta Premier Ralph Klein (although he’s sworn off
booze). Even B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant and Opposition Leader Joy MacPhail
admit they puffed in their younger years.
And so have a lot of other politicians, the people paid to enact Canada’s laws.
And so have a lot of police officers, and lawyers, and judges, the people
charged with the task of enforcing those laws.
In fact, if everyone who ever smoked marijuana in this country went on to a life of
crime and hard drugs, we’d be a nation of criminals and addicts.
We’re not, of course. But we are, to some extent, a nation of hypocrites.
For years, Canadians have allowed almost 30,000 of their fellow citizens to be charged
every year for simple possession of pot – that’s about half of all drug charges. Yet
statistics show a third to a half of Canadians 15 to 24 have tried pot at one time or
another. A lot of those over and under age 39 have as well.
Most of those charged end up with a judical slap on the wrist these days – or not,
depending on where the charge is laid. This inconsistency is another reason for
reconsidering the law.
But a conviction for marijuana possession can have serious life consequences. Offenders
may be barred from certain professions, for example, or forbidden to enter the United
States or other countries. And, of course, some do spend time in jail, a far more harmful
experience for them than taking a few tokes.
All in all, it’s a lot of punishment just for the sin of getting “high” through means
other than state-approved-and-sold alcohol.
Cauchon seems to agree. He’s floated the idea of decriminalizing possession of marijuana.
It wouldn’t be legal, but people wouldn’t get a criminal record for simple possession,
either – if caught with pot they might get a fine (like a speeding ticket). People trafficking
in marijuana would continue to face criminal charges.
That’s probably the best we’re going to get right now, because the pot issue is fraught
with the kind of moral ambiguities that politicians dread.
As a drug, marijuana is relatively harmless compared to its harder cousins cocaine and
heroin. It’s not physiologically addictive for most people, although it may lead to
long-term psychological addiction in some – and these are people who, if not addicted to pot,
would likely be addicted to something else.
A few go on from pot to harder drugs but, again, they might have gone to hard drugs anyway.
The reality is, most casual pot users don’t become addicts or ne’er-do-wells, although
the pot laws may make them criminals.
There is evidence that pot use at a young age can rob users of motivation, and this is
a serious concern.
But nobody, including Cauchon, wants marijuana to be freely available to teens and younger
(although, in reality, it could hardly be more available than it is now), any more than
anybody wants alcohol freely available to young people.
But, although marijuana use is a “vice,” like alcohol and tobacco, surely adults should be
free to choose their poison if it doesn’t harm anyone else.
Since marijuana user tend to get passive, rather than aggressive – unlike, say, some abusers
of alcohol – the main hazard to others and themselves is from the smoke, which contains
carcinogens (but not as many as tobacco).
In terms of enforcement, it costs Canadian federal agencies some $500 million a year to
fight drug use, and roughly half of that is spent pursuing marijuana users and providers.
The money could be better used on counselling and rehabilitation for serious drug abusers.
The Americans with their silly “war on drugs” will be upset if Canada decriminalizes, but
they lost that war long ago. Just because they have capital punishment doesn’t mean we
in Canada should, too. Why have the same drug laws?
And, if any further argument was needed, Canada has lost this war as well, at least as
far as pot is concerned. The herb is readily available everywhere, dspite decades of
suppression; the state can’t possibly eliminate a plant that can be easily grown in
flowerboxes.
Marijuana use is a vice. Canada would be better off without it, just as we’d
be better off without the legal vice of alcohol.
But Canada tried to prohibit alcohol 80 years ago and failed, and we haven’t had any
more luck with marijuana. It’s here to stay.
We don’t put people in jail or ruin their lives for using alcohol – only for misusing it,
or distributing it illegally. The same should be true of marijuana.
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