A special Canadian senate committee declared today that “Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and should be governed by the same sort of regulations”. In the story Legalize pot, Senate committee says Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chair of the committee was quoted to say:
Recently Canada seems to have taken a lighter and lighter look at Marijuana as a illegal drug. In July 2001 “Canada became the first country to adopt a system regulating the medicinal use of marijuana”. This new report does seem to be another peice of evidence on the side of legalization.
It’s good to see more countries legalising marijuana. Belgium is experimenting with legalisation currently, and I believe Germany and Denmark have similar programs in place. The UK has laws prohibiting marijuana use, but enforces them less and less as I understand.
The UK is reclassifying marijuana as a Class C drug next year (and police forces are increasingly turning a blind eye and reducing penalties for personal possession even now). This means a warning and confiscation for personal possession, although hefty punishments for dealing and for repeated warnings.
The committee discovered many issues for Decriminalization:
-Marijuana is “not a gateway” to harder drug, such as cocaine and heroine
-Fewer than 10 per cent of users become addicted
-A lot of public money is spent on law enforcement, even though public policies don’t seem to discourage use of drug
The final and most important thing was the pissing off the American government factor. Which (in thinking about) on a scale from one to ten this act would be a nine! I mean really high up, right up there with Rick Mercer’s idea to join Canada and Cuba to become “Canuba”. To be able to hear the soundbytes from the most hardline “anti-drug” American politicians the day after the law passed would be priceless.
Armed with these facts I don’t see how the average Canadian could have an objection.
Coldfire I wouldn’t be to sure of that. Sure we Canadians may seem nice, friendly and kind. However, we have a rule, a rule so important that it must be up held at ANY costs. Never, ever… pass up an opportunity to “show up” the Americans.
It’s this sacred rule that temporarily satisfies our inferiority complex enough to keep us from killing everyone of them that strays north of the 29th parallel.
From what I’ve read in our papers, no it’s not “legalizing” pot – we’re looking into following the U.K. that voted to change the classification of pot (and will be in effect later this year). So if you’re walking around smoking a fattie, you’ll get a ticket and fine rather than hard time in jail.
A lot of overly excited people have been saying that the U.K. and Canada are “legalizing” pot, some have said a bit more accuately “decriminalizing.” No, it’s just changing its status to unburden the legal and penal system.
Rather than arrest a guy for smoking a doobie, then spend tax dollars to try and sentence the guy, and then allot resources to house a guy in a jail cell for awhile… It just seems like a better idea to take his doobie away and give him a fine.
IIRC any changes will affect mostly possession laws (the “personal use” kind). Traffiking laws probably won’t be affected.
Wait, I just realized that I should clarify something – the “special Senate committee” did in fact suggest that pot should be a controlled substance that is still as readily and legally available as tobacco or alcohol (funny when you see the government’s anti-smoking campaigns). One of the suggestions is to introduce a licencing system for those who wish to produce and distribute cannabis.
Yeah, right.
Realisitically however, the talk has been much more geared to the changes as seen in the U.K. To that end, the issue was passed along to the Senate committee to “look into it.”
The recommendations are cute, but don’t go thinking you’ll be able to buy pot at the corner store any time soon.
Right now, with the U.S. and Canada being each other’s greatest trading partner (and with the longest undefended border), there is no way our present government is going to rock the boat like that. Logistically, it would be quite messy with the American “war on drugs.”
If the U.S. was more on board, then it would be much more realistic.
The Canadian government is also really pushing a “quit smoking campaign,” (claiming that they spend billions treating smoking related illnesses – forgetting to mention that the revenues that are generate from hefty taxes on tobacco far exceed those costs). They’d be in a bit of a pickle if they suddenly said: “Don’t smoke tobacco… Smoke pot instead!”
Personally, (being rather pro-cannabis, myself) I think that decriminalization is an excellent idea. Developing a licencing system for production and distribution however, is overly ambitious at this time. Give it a few years and see what progresses are made… once they find a way to do it without pissing off the U.S. (ie/ when Dubyah’s no longer in office) and they figure out how to tax the hell out of it, it may very well be a reality.
The State of New York effectively decriminalized small quantities of marijuana back in the '70s. I gather that the limit is some amount that could be reasonably considered to be for “personal use” only, i.e., under an ounce or something. IANAL, and I don’t use the stuff myself, so I haven’t really checked.
It’s still illegal, but if you fall into the “possesion for personal use” category it’s just a violation. Kinda like getting a speeding ticket.
There are still criminal penalties for carrying “dealer weight,” though.
