ENLIGHTENED POT LAWS OVERDUE

If Vancouver has the equivalent of a public square, it's the fountain
outside the old Vancouver Art Gallery downtown where, last week, I
smelled an unmistakable aroma coming from the vicinity of two young
men rolling white filter papers.

Pot. Right out in the open -- in full view of, well, everybody.

I shouldn't have been taken aback; this same smell can be picked up
in any Vancouver park or corner any day of the week. It surprised me
when I moved west 20 years ago. These days I'm accustomed to it.

But isn't possessing and using marijuana a criminal offence?

It is. But if a law is universally ignored, it becomes tough to
enforce. It inevitably grows to be disdained, scoffed at by the community.

Enter Keith Martin, a free-thinking Liberal MP from Esquimalt-Juan de
Fuca, health promotion critic for his party.

This week he introduced private member's Bill C-359, to decriminalize
marijuana possession. It would still be illegal, but those with up to
two pot plants would receive modest fines rather than being routed
through the justice system at great expense and, if convicted, left
with criminal records.

Ottawa spends about $450 million a year enforcing drug laws. Half of
all offences are for cannabis possession.

Tens of thousands of Canadians are charged annually with possession,
and 1.5 million citizens carry criminal records for this offence.
Imagine if Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Stockwell Day or Dalton
McGuinty had been convicted for using pot as teens, today they'd have
criminal records.

Martin's rationale is that decriminalization would "sever the
connection between organized crime and casual users."

The MP, a physician who worked in detox and drug rehab centres for 14
years, explains his bill would be "bad news for criminal gangs, which
are the only beneficiaries of the status quo because it would
eliminate demand for their product."

Of course, gangsters would still enjoy a thriving market for peddling
cocaine, crystal meth and heroin.

But decriminalization for possession is not about to happen because
private member's bills such as Martin's almost always die on the
parliamentary order paper. And with a law-and-order Conservative
government at the helm, the pot bill is sure to go nowhere.

Too bad. Martin speaks the truth when he remarks: "The war on drugs
has been a complete failure. It has not reduced the crime rate, drug
use, nor has it saved money or lives."

As a taxpayer, I'm prepared to take a lesson from the 1920s:
Prohibition does not work.

I would want to find ways to regulate and tax drug suppliers who
currently are running rampant, making personal fortunes,
bullet-proofing their fancy cars and killing people all over the place.

Martin's bill would reflect a modest first step in a much-needed
paradigm shift on drug enforcement. It's not a new idea either. He
has introduced similar, unsuccessful bills in the past.

Back in 2001, former Progressive Conservative prime minister Joe
Clark expressed support for decriminalizing possession of small
amounts of pot. The Canadian Medical Association Journal in the past
has called on Ottawa to decriminalize possession of small amounts for
personal use.

In 2002, then-Liberal justice minister Martin Cauchon promised the
Chretien-led government would introduce legislation to decriminalize
marijuana. But it never happened.

Clearly it's a worthy idea, just waiting to happen.