The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side Of The Law

Would you deem Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Ted Turner, Al Gore, Stephen King, Robert Mitchum, Bill Maher, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Ross Rebagliati as criminals? Each of these people has admitted to smoking marijuana in the past. Would you throw any of these people along with millions of others in jail for such a crime?

In recent Canadian news the topic of much controversial discussion has been the decriminalization of the possession of marijuana. The latest marijuana bill introduced proposes to decriminalize possession of less than 15 grams of marijuana. Offenders would receive fines of between $100 and $400, instead of criminal records and jail time. There is obviously a need for such a bill to be passed or it would not have been re-introduced.

The "marijuana bill" would affect, at a minimum, the population of some 12.2% of Canadian users as reported by Stats Can this year (Panetta), and a maximum some sources even say is 40%. With such a large population smoking marijuana, it is relatively safe to say that these people would also possess small amounts of marijuana. The current punishment is much too harsh for something no worse than having the occasional drink. Canadians as a whole would stand to benefit greatly from the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana in many different ways. Related health issues could be resolved with fewer struggles and would be more accessible to people without the fear of being persecuted, use would decrease, law enforcement would benefit from spending police hours on more important crimes and societal costs would decrease.

Millions of people have tried pot in the past, whether it is experimenting in college or to relax after a hard day or to help ease the pain and discomfort of some medical conditions. I am a typical college student; I indulge in smoking the occasional joint and I have in the past. Nobody has been hurt from my marijuana use or any of my friends or anyone else for that matter. Why should we fear becoming a criminal for something so harmless? Now I'm not saying that this includes those people that go out and get into a car accident because they were too high. I support the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana because I would much rather receive a fine for my actions than go to jail or ruin any chances that I might have at getting a good job in the future.

I will never forget the one time I did get caught smoking marijuana in high school. I don't think anybody could have been more thankful that the police did not prosecute me, but decided to confiscate my marijuana and let me off with a warning. Although being a young offender the penalty would not have been nearly as harsh as what I could face today, with current marijuana possession laws. Under the young offenders act I would receive a "second chance" and would be referred to the alternative measures program which would entail community service as punishment and the record would be destroyed when I turned 18. Being 22, I could go to jail for the same offense of possessing a small amount of marijuana. Fortunately for me, I didn't go jail, or have to endure the humiliation and distress from being arrested. But that doesn't let me forget that each year thousands of peoples lives, education and careers are damaged by the stigmatizing experience of arrest. Families often incur emotional stresses and face lost income. The only people really affected by this bill are the large number of users and those who might want to try smoking pot. Decriminalizing possession of small amounts wouldn't really affect anybody that doesn't use marijuana and so, why oppose such a bill?

First let us discuss the severity of using marijuana, in comparison with much worse, legal drugs that people use everyday. Alcohol and tobacco are far more detrimental in every way than marijuana is. The largest supporting evidence for this lies in the statistics related to and social stigma surrounding the use of tobacco and alcohol.

In its simplest form, our laws are based upon what the majority of people think is right and wrong. People have made laws to protect and enforce these beliefs and morals. Society's morals have decided that both alcohol and tobacco are acceptable substances for people to use and abuse at their own discretion. Bars, clubs, pubs, restaurants, everywhere that serve alcohol or allow smoking display society's norm for the consumption of these substances. Places like these as well as the media and the majority of people in Canada advocate drinking to have a good time. Although smoking is becoming less accepted, the troubles surrounding it still exist. Both alcohol and tobacco contribute to an overwhelming amount of problems in society while marijuana use is unquestionably low in comparison.

Take tobacco for instance; 21% of Canadians smoke and tobacco related diseases kill more than 47 500 Canadians each year. Cigarette smoking causes about 30% of cancers in Canada and more than 85% of lung cancers. Lung cancer is the leading death causing cancer in Canada, as reported by the Canadian Cancer Society. Now some might say that marijuana is just as bad as smoking tobacco because smoke is still being inhaled in the same detrimental fashion. Although smoked marijuana contains the same amount of carcinogens as the equivalent amount of tobacco, a heavy tobacco smoker consumes much more tobacco than a heavy marijuana smoker consumes marijuana. This is because smoked tobacco has a 90% addiction rate and is the most addictive of all drugs while marijuana is less addictive than even caffeine. Editors of the Lancet British medical journal said, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat than alcohol or tobacco" ("British Medical Association's").

As for alcohol, though Canada is primarily a country of moderate drinkers, nearly 1 in 4 drinkers confess that their drinking has caused harm sometime in their lives. Recent studies by the Canadian Addiction Survey show that nearly 25% of Canadians are high-risk drinkers (Kirkey A6). Juergen Rehm, of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, said "drinking is detrimentally related to 55 disease categories" (qtd. in Kirkey A6). Studies reported by MADD Canada in 1995 estimated that 6, 507 Canadians died due to alcohol consumption, and 82, 014 Canadians were admitted to hospitals because of alcohol misuse. These facts prompt the comparison of what is worse, alcohol or marijuana. When have you ever heard of a man smoking a joint and then beating his wife? How about a man having a couple drinks and then beating his wife? Alcohol has been known to cause violence in a large number of individuals, whereas the biggest complaint