cannabisnews.com: Timid Half-Measure Will Fail










  Timid Half-Measure Will Fail

Posted by CN Staff on May 30, 2003 at 15:19:34 PT
By Dan Gardner 
Source: Ottawa Citizen  

A cutting-edge plan -- if this was 1968: Replacing the criminal charge for possession with a fine will change little, or nothing at all.Marijuana reform has been debated on and off for 30 years, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said at a press conference yesterday. The research is in. The reports are in. "Now is the time to act," the minister boldly declared. Or at least it sounded bold. Certainly the minister would like Canadians to think the government's plan is bold. And it would have been -- in 1968.
But this is not 1968. It's 2003, and for more than 20 years now, nations across the western world have been drastically easing, or even scrapping, marijuana prohibition. Next to these reforms, the government's bold plan looks like little more than fresh polish on the police officer's boot.Only in relation to the ludicrously punitive laws common in the United States could the government's planned legislation be considered a significant reform. And even from an American perspective there's reason to snicker: Fines for possessing small amounts of marijuana have been in place in a dozen states since the late 1970s; Mr. Cauchon's "modernization" of marijuana laws puts us on the cutting edge of the Carter era.Scratch that. Decriminalization wasn't cutting edge even in the days of disco. Remember Canada's famous LeDain commission? After a massive amount of research in the early 1970s, the commission called for the legalization of the possession of small amounts. That was the cutting edge 30 years ago. Apparently the simple idea of not punishing consenting adults for smoking a joint in the privacy of their own home remains too radical for the Liberals to contemplate.Is it fear of the United States? Is it the alleged straitjacket of international treaties? Is it worries about exploding use? None of these is a legitimate objection. A string of European countries has ceased to punish marijuana possession, and in each case there was no American backlash, no international pariahdom, no spectacular leap in use.European experience was a key reason the Senate committee on marijuana recommended full legalization. Yesterday, Mr. Cauchon called the Senate committee's report "wonderful." He's right. The Senate's 650-page report is a masterpiece of thorough research. Too bad the government ignored it.To understand just how disingenuous the government is being when it fobs off this plan as major reform, bear in mind two facts about the status quo. First, half of those currently caught with marijuana are let go with a warning. Second, most small-amount marijuana possession charges today are only incidental to other charges (an armed robber caught and found to have a joint in his pocket will always get that extra little charge, for whatever bizarre reason). Just about everyone in the justice system agrees that possessing a small amount of marijuana is no reason to saddle an ordinary kid with a criminal record or to send a law-abiding citizen to jail -- which is why these things very rarely happen. So replacing the criminal charge with a fine will change little or nothing.There is one caveat on that, however. Criminologists have often found that lowering, but not eliminating, a punishment results in more punishment. It's called the "net-widening effect."Replace charges with fines, and people the police would have let off with a warning and a wave under the old system will instead by hit with a fine. In other words, decriminalization could lead to more people being punished, not fewer.That's not what the majority of Canadians who support decriminalization want or expect, but that may be what they're about to get. Hardliners might think this is just fine on the theory that more punishment would cut use and improve health and safety. Certainly that's the basic theory of drug prohibition.But as I've written before, a tall stack of research says otherwise -- the most recent being a report by a blue-ribbon panel of American scientists commissioned by the U.S. drug czar. Does the government have any evidence to the contrary? I've never seen any, and the ministers have presented none. If Mr. Cauchon or Health Minister Anne McLellan have such evidence, perhaps they would be so kind as to share it with the public.Still more intellectually bankrupt are the government's plans for the marijuana trade. With tougher punishments and more money for enforcement, said Mr. Cauchon, "we will decrease the supply of marijuana by targeting the source."Here the government has latched onto cutting edge thinking circa 1955. At that time, a series of drug hysterias in Canada and the U.S. led to the passage of brutal punishments in both countries. This was followed by an explosion of drug use, trafficking and cultivation in the 1960.In the 1970s, most of the draconian punishments were dropped when legislators finally acknowledged what had become spectacularly obvious: Tough punishments just don't work. Of course that lesson was quickly forgotten, but all the contemporary evidence suggests it's as valid as ever.As I wrote recently, the U.S. spends roughly $40 billion U.S. a year fighting drugs, and it has truly savage penalties for growing and trafficking marijuana -- yet 97 per cent of law enforcement agencies rate marijuana availability as "high" or "medium." Marijuana cultivation in the United States is so massive that the U.S. is its own largest source of marijuana.Do Mr. Cauchon and his colleagues seriously think Canadian police officers can succeed where the entire American war on drugs failed?To be honest, I don't think they do. If they did, after all, why wouldn't they apply the same policies to tobacco? Marijuana and tobacco are both plants, after all. They both contain drugs. In fact, by any measure, tobacco is vastly more harmful than marijuana. So if the government is convinced that criminal prohibition is such a brilliant way to protect public health and safety from marijuana, why not do exactly the same with tobacco?Ms. McLellan took a shot at answering this in the press conference. "In all honesty, knowing what we know today about tobacco and its health effects, if one could go back and re-write the script, one might take different approaches. But that's not where we're at. We have an illegal substance. We know it has deleterious health effects. It remains an illegal substance."What was, is. And what is, remains. So goes the government's bold new thinking on marijuana.Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Author: Dan GardnerPublished: Wednesday, May 28, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Ottawa CitizenContact: letters thecitizen.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Related Articles & Web Site:Marketing Marijuana Mythology http://freedomtoexhale.com/gardner.htmDon't Bully Canada, U.S. Told http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16336.shtmlSenate Report on Cannabis: Get Whole Story http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14319.shtmlLegalize Marijuana, Senate Committee Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13989.shtml 

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Comment #2 posted by afterburner on May 31, 2003 at 11:45:44 PT:
"fresh polish on the police officer's boot" 
Check out what Richard Cowan said about the proposed re-crim bill BEFORE it was tabled and the need for debate in both Canada and USA:Health Minister Ann McLellan is sort of John Walters in drag. CBC said that she “sounded more like she was back in her old Justice portfolio – said she sympathized with police who claim they don't have the resources to target growing operations.”To say that she sympathizes with police is an understatement. She really seems to view her job as Health Minister as protecting the narks against the sick and dying. SeeHealth Canada’s “Office of Cannabis Medical Access' Stakeholder Advisory Committee” Includes “Physicians for A Smoke Free Canada” - Not The Compassion Societies. But It Will Let Them Talk… For An Hour http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=681andThe Slow Motion Murder of Michael Patriquen. Canada Really Does Have A Death Penalty, But Only for Medical Cannabis Patients. Breaking Their Own Laws To Follow the Prohibitionist Party Line. http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=660andCanadian Health Minister Seeks Asylum In DEAland; Says Making Her Think About Medical Cannabis Constitutes Torture. “In DC They Don’t Allow That Sort of Thing. Thinking, That Is.” http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=612andGreat Canadian Editorial Calls for Legalization; Decries Justice Minister's Giving Narks Veto Over Changing Marijuana Laws. 
http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=205Now when one considers that the Health Minister of Canada is so ignorant of the literature on the subject it would indeed seem that it is we who “need to be ready with information, with education, and with treatment."SeeThe Need For Drug Prohibition Education.Analysis By Richard Cowan. 
How Can Parents Tell Their Children The Truth In A Sea Of Lies About Marijuana? http://www.marijuananews.com/marijuananews/cowan/need_for_drug_prohibition_educat.htm-Top Story: Canada’s New “Decriminalization” Bill To Be Delayed After Justice Minister’s Trip to Washington, and Health Minister’s Trip to the Marvelous World Of Marijuana Make-Believe. John Walters In Drag? http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=687All else being equal, softening the law against possession would have no impact on the supply available for export. Indeed, if it did cause an increase in demand, as the prohibitionist claim, then it would actually reduce the supply available to export. That would be even truer, if the proposed increase in penalties for growing had any impact, beyond increasing the role of organized crime.SeeOrganized Crime In The Marijuana Trade.
Why More "Law Enforcement" is Counterproductive. 
An Excellent Halifax Editorial Says, "Marijuana laws encourage crime."
http://www.marijuananews.com/marijuananews/cowan/organized_crime_in_the_marijuana.htmCanada needs to have a national debate on cannabis prohibition in order to resolve its own problems, but in doing so they could resolve the world’s problems with the global police mechanism that threatens freedom as nothing else can in the age of the prohibitionist hyperpower. The only problem is that first they must inform themselves to free themselves. 
SeeCanada Exports A Little Reefer to DEAland. Imports A Lot of Reefer Madness. A Bad Balance of Trade. Canadian Taxpayers Are Being Lied to At Their Own Expense, But It May Also Cost Them Their Freedom. http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=656and
Police Interference in the Canadian Electoral Process. The Royal Canadian Marijuana Police Disinformation Campaign for Marijuana Prohibition. Analysis by Richard Cowan. http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=425and
The Next Prime Minister of Canada Talks War… On Us. Looming Prohibitionist Counterattack in Canada Proves Need for International Debate On Cannabis Prohibition. http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=684-How Canada Could Have A Major Impact On The World By Legalizing Cannabis. More Than Its Own Sovereignty Is At Stake. What Washington Really Fears Is Freedom. Supreme Court Cases Make This Urgent. 
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2003-05-15 23:21:57 
Source: 
 
The song says, “everybody needs somebody to love,” but in a police state everybody needs somebody to hate. That’s us.“Drugs” make a great enemy, but it is cannabis that is the key, both economically and politically. If the Canadian politicians and people just knew the power that they have to change the world by restoring freedom to the American people and the global victims of the drug war, I think that they would rise to the occasion. 
 
 
Read Full Story... http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=688
 Tuck Refugee Hearings End. The Facts Put Canada In Awkward Position. Catching A Nark In A Lie? Imagine That! News and Analysis by Richard Cowan. 
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2003-05-16 19:51:41 
Source: 
 
The veteran investigator was so disturbed by the wanton destruction of the Tucks’ home that he did not charge the Tucks’ for his investigation, and said that he was ashamed of what his country was doing to people like them.
 
Read Full Story... http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=689Dan Gardner of The Ottawa Citizen Continues Iconoclastic Practice of Questioning Government Statements And Checking Facts. Someday These Techniques May Even Be Taught In Journalism Schools. 
Posted by Richard Cowan on 0000-00-00 00:00:00 
Source: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ 
 
"A review of government documents and independent research casts doubt on each of these and other related claims. Some are merely dubious. Some are contradicted by official sources. Some are exaggerations. A few are simply false.” The sad truth is that there are very few journalists who follow the most elemental journalistic practices when covering the cannabis issues. 
 
Read Full Story... http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=690The mismanagement of the initiatives by MPP and others is a big part of the current problem. In his report on the decline in funding, Nadelmann noted, "We suffered various losses on ballot initiatives last year, and Washington is firmly in the hands of the drug warriors. There is a lot of questioning about what are the optimal strategies. Ballot initiatives loomed large for funders, and now there is some questioning of that."....As it happens, the campuses should also be seen as key to moving the media. First, the media are more apt to report on activities on a campus than in the community in general.Second, campus newspapers are the training ground for future journalists, even on campuses that do not have journalism schools. I have been very encouraged by the increasing number of editorials and letters to the editors in campus newspapers that are critical of the drug war. Obviously, we should also look to the faculties, especially in the journalism schools, but also in other disciplines as well.-NORML and A Strategy for the Legalization of Cannabis. Crunch Time for Freedom. That Applies to MarijuanaNews. 
Posted by Richard Cowan on 0000-00-00 00:00:00 
Posted May 20, 2003
Source: www.norml.org 
 
This should be an open strategy that explicitly calls for the media to do its job and for the campuses to organize. It should seek support in the journalism schools and their publications. There are organizations and philanthropies that focus on the role of the media in modern society. The ideal project might be a conference on a campus with a major journalism school that publishes a journalism review. It could produce a web-based debate on the media’s coverage of the drug war in general and cannabis in particular. Something like this might be done in both DEAland and Canada. Read Full Story... http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=691Dr. Lester Grinspoon Warns About The Pharmaceuticalization of Cannabis, As GW Pharmaceutical Hits All Time High After Deal With Bayer. But Does It Need Prohibition In Order to Succeed? 
Posted by Richard Cowan on 2003-05-26 00:00:00 
Source: 
 
“It is also clear that the realities of human need are incompatible with the demand for a legally enforceable distinction between medicine and all other uses of cannabis.” "In the end, the commercial success of any psychoactive cannabinoid product will depend on how vigorously the prohibition against marijuana is enforced.” 
Read Full Story... http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=692 
ego transcendence follows ego destruction, when the truth is allowed to be known.
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on May 30, 2003 at 15:50:44 PT
There is something you don't see everyday
nations across the western world have been drastically easing, or even scrapping, marijuana prohibition. Actually, I have never noticed marijuana prohibition from a print medium at Cnews. Now that the Ottawa Citizen has pioneered a new trail of thought, it all smells like demise for cannabis prohibition in Canada with the rest of the world to follow.There is an excellent article on how the corporate takeover of America was accomplished by making sure the Democratic Party was weakened when the control of the Republican Party was complete throught the formation of the DLC- http://www.progressive.org/nich1000.htm
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