06/10/2003

WINNIPEG, Manitoba

THERE'S A POINT worth making about so-called decriminalization of marijuana in Canada ("It's Canada's business," editorial, June 4). The Liberal Party of Canada is not, in fact, decriminalizing marijuana -- it's criminalizing it.

A succession of Canadian courts have ruled that the Canadian laws regarding the possession of marijuana are unconstitutional. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Ontario Supreme Court threw out the conviction of a 16-year-old kid in Windsor who had skipped school, gone to Itchykoo Park to get high, and been caught with a couple of joints. The Ontario Supreme Court decision is a binding precedent on Canadian courts. The Supreme Court of Canada also ruled Canada's possession laws unconstitutional, and gave the government a year to pass a new law -- which it never did.

Thus, the Ontario Supreme Court ruled Canada's possession laws null and void. Abortion is legal in Canada, because the Canadian Supreme Court ruled the old law unconstitutional and the politicians could not agree on a new one. Polls show 82 percent of Canadians are in favor of decriminalization, or legalization, of marijuana.

The proposed penalty for possession is identical to that in 12 U.S. states: a $150 (Canadian) fine for possession of up to 15 grams. This would, in practice, recriminalize pot in Canada. Right now, possession laws -- especially in the cities -- are rarely, if ever, enforced. And if you are unlucky enough to get charged, your case is rarely prosecuted. If it is prosecuted, you'll most likely get an "absolute discharge" ("Be a good boy and there is no record of your being charged"). If you're a small-time grower or dealer, the most common sentence is a "conditional discharge" ("Be a good boy for six months to a year and there is no record of your being charged").

The worry of Canada's legions of pot smokers about the new "decriminalization" is that this will become like photo radar. The police will actually start enforcing the pot laws, as a huge new cash cow, to grab the $150 fines.

There is also a lot of complaining from the 600,000 Canadians who have pot convictions on their records that the proposed law is not retroactive. Technically, they can be barred from entering the United States as tourists.

As the president of the Canadian chapter of the world's largest smokers'-rights group, Forces International (www.forces.org), I am regularly inundated with e-mails from older Canadians who wonder why there is a laissez-faire attitude toward marijuana -- still technically an illegal substance in Canada -- compared with draconian restrictions on cigarettes -- which are still technically legal.

The answer I give is trite: Rich people in Canada smoke pot; poor people smoke cigarettes. The health argument is a joke. Marijuana contains at least 10 to 20 times the carcinogens and tar as cigarettes. Yet noted anti-smoking loudmouths in the media are champions of marijuana legalization. (Speaking strictly as an individual, I am in favor of the complete legalization of marijuana.)

The absurdity of this can be seen in Vancouver. The maximum penalty there for smoking marijuana (rarely, if ever, enforced) is a $50 fine; the penalty for smoking a cigarette indoors in Vancouver is a $100 fine, and it is rigorously enforced. So you can go into innumerable Vancouver head shops and smoke joint after joint -- but you can't light up a cigarette; you're told, "We don't need the hassles with the cops."

In some parts of Canada the fines for smoking a cigarette indoors is 10 times the amount for smoking marijuana indoors.

For instance, the owners and employees of a pool hall in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, are facing a $150 fine for allowing cigarette smoking in their establishment. There is no law against smoking pot in the pool hall. Its called the Tobacco Control Act.

The Liberal Party is becoming a laughingstock over its marijuana policy. It embarked upon this because it recently lost a by-election in its Ontario stronghold. The far-left New Democratic Party, which campaigned on complete legalization of marijuana, siphoned off enough votes from the Liberals to allow the Conservatives to win the by-election. The more conservative elements of the Liberal Party -- the party that tries to be all things to all men -- are promising/threatening a $245 million "education campaign" warning of the dangers of decriminalized pot.

The tab for the Liberals' lifestyle programs is expensive: $480 million for "tobacco control," for example. Recently, we learned that youth smoking has skyrocketed. (Tell kids not to smoke 50,000 times and guess what they're going to do?) A billion dollars was spent on a "gun registry" that was supposed to cost $4 million. Provinces are refusing to enforce the gun-control laws. The nuts and the criminals have never had a problem finding guns; the law made no dent in crime but has turned law-abiding farmers and hunters into criminals for refusing to register their guns. And now $245 million for "Reefer Madness II."

Canada doesn't need a prime minister. It needs a psychiatrist to figure out why we keep voting Liberal.

Warren Klass, of Winnipeg, is president of Forces Canada (www.forces.org/canada), a smoking-rights group.