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URL:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n640/a07.html
Newshawk: CMAP (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap)
Pubdate: Sat, 03 May 2003
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Toronto Star
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.com
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Tim Harper, Washington Bureau
POT PLAN PUTS U.S. NOSES OUT OF JOINT
Trade At Risk, Warns Drug Czar
Decriminalization Called A Mistake
WASHINGTON--Welcome to the latest flashpoint in Canada-U.S. relations, one that has nothing to do with regime change
or war and everything to do with pot.
Even as the wounds from a winter of bilateral discontent fester, Washington this week sharpened its attack on Prime Minister
Jean Chretien's plans to decriminalize marijuana,
indicating a move most Canadians are prepared to accept with a shrug is seen
as an affront to the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
John Walters, Bush's drug czar, said the Liberal government hasn't done its
homework in studying data to justify the move and accused Ottawa of allowing "poison" to be shipped to his
country.
He implied the Chretien Liberals were naive and have no plans to deal with the "explosion" of
high-potency pot -- which he called the crack cocaine of marijuana -- being
grown in British
Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario.
The U.S. threat is
clear. If Chretien doesn't blink, the U.S. will have to slow
down the movement of goods across the border.
Walters said a flood of Canadian pot moving south becomes an American
problem, meaning increased border patrols.
"You expect your friends to stop the movement of poison to your neighbourhood," Walters said. "And that
is what's going on here. If we were sending toxic substances to your
young people, you would be and should be upset."
In short, Canada is being seen in some quarters here as a
pot-crazed, irresponsible nation living in the late 1960s.
First, we're soft on Saddam. Now, we're soft on pot.
Canadian officials privately believe it is Washington that's stuck in a time warp, taking the world back
to an earlier era of Reefer Madness.
When a Canadian Senate committee called for legalization of pot and the House
of Commons followed with a recommendation of decriminalization, there were
gusts of displeasure from Walters and his colleagues, but nothing like this
week's gale of protest. In Vancouver, where the city is working to open up the first
injection site for drug users, David Murray, an assistant to Walters, went
further on threats of border slowdowns. He said it would be
"regrettable" to see the "loss of the mutual co-operative
partnership we've had with Canadians regarding our borders, regarding the
integrity of the hemisphere, regarding our commerce, regarding the
implications of trade and value to ourselves."
In Canada, where decriminalizing pot possession has been off and on the
public agenda for more than three decades, the first impulse was to ignore the
complaints from the south, but that also changed this week.
"The difficulty we have with Mr. Walters' comments is, are they
driven by ideology or are they based on facts?" said Richard Mosley, a
federal justice official in charge of criminal law policy. "On the
evidence, the decriminalization experience in some states, Australia and Western
Europe does not increase
the use of cannabis."
There is a huge gulf in philosophy toward marijuana control between Canada and the U.S., Mosley said.
"The United
States
has zero tolerance to possession and trafficking, while the approach of many
other countries is to try to reduce the harm," he said. "The
approach in the U.S. has been to absolutely prevent the
use of cannabis."
Marijuana possession will still be illegal in Canada, Mosley says, and this country is not shirking any
of its international responsibilities toward drug control. Other
sources have indicated that any move to decriminalize possession would come
in tandem with a crackdown on large-scale growing operations which have
sprung up in Ontario and British Columbia.
"We have to keep things in perspective," Mosley said.
"The amount of cannabis produced in Canada is a small proportion of that produced domestically
by the United
States
or smuggled into the United States from other countries."
According to the United Nations, 2 per cent of the cannabis seized worldwide
in 2002 was nabbed in Canada, while 5 per cent came from the United States and 46 per cent came from Mexico.
The Chretien government has studied the Australian
model, in which tickets are issued for those charged with marijuana
possession.
A Canadian analysis of the Australian laws showed no increase in cannabis
use.
As many as 14 U.S. states have also loosened marijuana
laws, and some have eliminated the possibility of jail for possession since
the 1970s.
None of that matters to Walters.
"The RCMP tells me privately that they are frustrated that the political
leadership in Canada simply does not support stiff sentences and simply
hasn't come to grips with this problem," he said in the interview.
"If you look at anywhere in the world, at any time in history you want,
when you reduce the deterrent forces in society for using drugs, you get more
drug use and you get more drug trafficking."
He also said it is "particularly troubling" that -- in his view --
Canadian officials have admitted to him there is no reliable data in Canada
about how many people smoke pot, how many people are dependent on it and what
age groups use it.
Justice Minister Martin Cauchon told reporters this
week there are 100,000 cannabis users in Canada, although he did not define
the term "user."
"In the absence of any data, there is apparently a certainty that
decriminalizing doesn't cause trafficking, despite every single example
everywhere in the world is the reverse," Walters said.
Walters used an analogy many Canadians might find amusing -- gun
control. If laws were relaxed on possession of illegal weapons, he
asked, does anyone believe there would be a decrease in gun crime?
"That would be ludicrous. The same principle applies to
drugs," he said.
U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci
told reporters in Ottawa yesterday the decriminalization of pot could cause
tensions at the border if there is a perception it has become easier to get
hold of marijuana in Canada, the Star's Allan Thompson reported.
"No one has seen the proposal yet," he said. "Does it
actually make it more difficult to get marijuana? Is the enforcement of the
civil penalty going to be a strong one? Are the criminal penalties for those
who grow marijuana, are they going to be strengthened?
"I think it comes down to a perception. If the perception is that
it might be more easy to get marijuana here, then that could lead to some
pressure on the border because U.S. customs
and immigration officers are law enforcement officers. And they would
have their antenna up as people were going over from Canada and into the United States."
Asked about U.S. concerns, Deputy Prime Minister John
Manley said, "We do need to have a discussion with the United States about it to make sure that they understand what it
is we intend to do," the Star's Les Whittington reported.
Manley said Ottawa "believes this approach could enable more
resources to be directed to enforcement against trafficking and production,
which ought to reduce the problem rather than contribute to it."
He said U.S. concerns could cause
slowdowns at the border if decriminalization in Canada increases the likelihood of more trafficking of the
illegal drug into the U.S. But "I don't think we have evidence that
decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of marijuana is
necessarily going to lead to increased smuggling. I think that's a bit
of a leap."
Walters praised efforts of the Mexican and Colombian governments, saying they
have made efforts to cut into the cocaine trade while the Canadian pot
situation "is out of control.
"I've heard a lot of people in Canada talking about how they are doing this because there
are people clogged in the criminal justice system with possession
charges," Walters said.
"We don't lock up people for possession here. We have serious
criminals in jails here."
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
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