PM to roll out new pot bill
By: Sean Gordon - CanWest News Service, The Star Phoenix, 12/19/03

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin has pledged to revive the government's moribund marijuana legislation early in the New Year, but it may only bear a passing resemblance to the bill tabled by the Chretien government this fall.

The new bill will still impose fines instead of criminal convictions for simple possession, but it's expected to feature stiffer penalties for pot growers and repeat offenders. Martin said he also favours higher fines for possession and stricter limits on the maximum permitted amounts.

"I think one's got to take a look at the fines, I think that you have to take a look at the quantities and I think that there has to be a larger effort against the grow-ops and those who distribute it," Martin said before a meeting with Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams on Parliament Hill on Thursday.

Canadian Alliance MP Randy White, a strident critic of the legislation, said he is encouraged by Martin's stance.

"It sounds like he's got a better perspective than the previous prime minister and the hacks he installed on the parliamentary committee to study this bill," said White.

White said he'll ask for a meeting with Martin to emphasize the importance of taking a non-partisan approach to the legislation.

A national survey published by Health Canada in October showed that marijuana consumption is at a 25-year high among teenagers; 54 per cent of 15-to-19 year olds admitted to smoking the drug more than once.

When asked about that study and others, Martin replied: "From a health standpoint, any doctor will tell you it's not the best thing to do, far from it . . . but it doesn't help things to give a criminal record to a young person who is caught with minimal amounts."

Marijuana legalization activists called Martin's wish to stiffen the requirements of the proposed law "a public hazard" and said it won't solve the problems it seeks to address.

"The law is already too tough . . . all this will do is target young people and make them criminals by giving them fines they can't possibly afford to pay. It does nothing to take drugs out of schools," said Hugo St. Onge, leader of the Montreal-based Bloc Pot, a provincial affiliate of the federal Marijuana party.

The original bill to decriminalize pot possession had made it to the committee stage but died on the order paper following former prime minister Jean Chretien's decision to prorogue the House of Commons ahead of last month's Liberal leadership convention.

The legislative proposal would have allowed people to possess up to 15 grams of marijuana.

Martin telegraphed his intentions in October when he supported amendments from Liberal backbenchers and Canadian Alliance MPs to toughen Cauchon's bill.

A spokesperson for Alliance caucus leader Stephen Harper accused Martin of "playing with political optics" by promising to bring back the marijuana bill.

"Mr. Martin is looking to bring forward an inconsequential bill to be defeated in the House of Commons so he can use it as a symbol of how he's slain the democratic deficit. If he was really sincere about eliminating the democratic deficit, he would bring in a bill that people really care about and risk having it defeated," said Jim Armour.

The final makeup of the bill is also dependent on a number of external factors.

The Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to issue a long-anticipated ruling Tuesday on whether current marijuana possession laws violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

And although Martin has repeatedly emphasized his wish to improve Ottawa's relations with the U.S., the new marijuana legislation won't win him any friends in George W. Bush's Republican administration.

U.S. drug czar John Walters has roundly condemned all Canadian efforts to relax pot laws.