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CNN World Report

Canadians Campaign for Legalizing Marijuana

Aired July 08, 2001 - 14:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SHIHAB RATTANSI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the campaign to legalize marijuana has began in Canada. The Canadian government is already considering legalizing marijuana for medicinal reasons, but many of the country's estimated 1.5 million pot smokers want the laws banning recreational use of the drug also abolished. Canada's Global TV takes us to a protest in Montreal, where people are openly flaunting the law.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAYMOND FILION, GLOBAL TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of people are challenging authorities in a Montreal park. They are smoking marijuana in public to call for an end to the 79-year-old prohibition of pot, because what this young man is doing is not only illegal, it's a crime in Canada, just like theft, rape and murder. Simple possession of cannabis is criminal here.

Marijuana became a prohibited substance in Canada in 1922, 15 years before the U.S. Each year, thousands of Canadians are arrested, many end up with a criminal record. Conservative Party leader Joe Clark believes that's too much of a punishment and calls for decriminalization.

This doctor agrees.

JOHN HOEY, CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: At the moment, it is regulated under the criminal code, so it is -- along with the Narcotic Regulation Act, it's along with cocaine and heroin and other drugs, so -- and yet it's a lot less harmful.

FILION (on camera): A decriminalization does not necessarily mean that pot would become legal, it simply means it would not be a crime. Possession of marijuana for personal use would become a civil offense, just like a traffic violation, for instance.

DAVID GRIFFIN, CANADIAN POLICE ASSOCIATION: The Canadian Police Association will actively oppose efforts to decriminalize or legalize the possession of illicit drugs.

FILION (voice-over): Police forces are staunchly opposed to the idea of abandoning the fight against marijuana. Even though many scientific studies show pot is no more dangerous than tobacco, they insist it is. GLEN HAYDON, CANADIAN POLICE ASSOCIATION: Marijuana disrupts functions of the brain, impairing judgment, concentration and short- term memory, as well as the ability to perform normal tasks.

MARC BORIS ST.MAURICE: The fact that so many Canadians use marijuana, break this law on a daily basis, and this law is doing nothing to change that behavior -- and these people who are using marijuana are no worse off, you know, your average, healthy citizens who contribute to society.

FILION: The Netherlands have a tolerant policy toward marijuana. Soft drugs are sold in coffee shops there, but Canadian police authority say that's an example that should not be followed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holland has turned into Europe's Colombia.

FILION: They say the Netherlands have become a major transit center for ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. But partisans of decriminalization in Canada believe relaxing the law is just what would hurt organized crime.

HOEY: I think there is a slight risk. If marijuana stays in the criminal code, then in order to purchase marijuana and to get it, you have to go into -- you have to access a distribution system, for which there is some overlap with the distribution system for these harder drugs, and so there may be some danger there that is related to the system of delivery of marijuana and other drugs to the Canadian market.

FILION: In Quebec City, this is Raymond Filion, Global TV Canada, for CNN WORLD REPORT.

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