From: [m--g--s] at [hempbc.com] (Dana Larsen) Newsgroups: rec.drugs.cannabis,alt.hemp.recreational,talk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs.pot,rec.drugs.misc,talk.politics.libertarian Subject: Senate Testimony of Dana Larsen Date: 23 Apr 1996 09:56:18 GMT Dana Larsen, Editor of Cannabis Canada: I just want to make a brief presentation. I have had a lot of correspondence with the government, the federal ministries of health and justice, over the last few years. If you ask them any questions about decriminalizing cannabis or any questions about drugs, you get a form letter which has not changed from the time of Pierre Blais to Allan Rock. It is the exactly the same letter with a different name on the bottom. They give three reasons as to why they do not want to decriminalize marihuana, and I assume they apply to other drugs as well. The first reason they give is that decriminalizing cannabis could result in greater use of the drug by Canadians, thereby increasing the health and safety hazards associated with it. The second reason they give is that it might put us in violation of international treaties that we have signed. The third reason they give is that decriminalizing cannabis is likely to meet with considerable opposition from the public. They say that there are public opinion polls which consistently show that Canadians are opposed to liberalizing access to marihuana. I spent about year and a half making Access to Information requests to these departments, and my patience finally paid off and I received a number of documents from the departments of the health and justice which show their claims are based upon absolutely nothing. As to the claim that usage would rise if marihuana was decriminalized, after about a year I received 12 pages of references from the Minister of Justice. Six of those are from the 28th U.N Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1979, and they are simply statements made by individuals on the different commissions that they feel that if we decriminalize, it could increase rates of usage, without any documentation or backup. The other six pages they sent me were from a document called “Questions and Answers on Cannabis”, prepared by the Ministry of Health in 1980, and they ask the question, can increase in cannabis use be attributed to reduced penalties for use of the drug? They quote two American studies and the conclusions that they give are that evidence from these two independent sets of data from the U.S. indicates that reducing legal consequences for possession of small amounts of cannabis does not accelerate the growth rate in use. So decriminalizing cannabis does not affect the rate of usage. The second reason they give is with regard to the international treaties. Once again, after long delays, I finally got a response, and article 36 of the 1961 convention on narcotic drugs states that, subject to its constitutional limitations, each party shall adopt such measures as will ensure that cultivation, production, and so on, shall be punishable offences. “Subject to its constitutional limitations” is a key phrase there. As we know, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that all Canadians are equal under the law and are entitled to protection without discrimination, in particular against, race, religion, ethnic origin. Marihuana is used as a religious sacrament by a number of different groups, such as the Rastafarians, the Church of the Universe based in Ontario, Tantric Buddhists, Kabalarians, and a number of other organizations. This to me seems to be religious use, which seems perfectly acceptable under this treaty. An interesting note is that there is a herb called kat, which will be banned under this bill, as was explained in testimony before the Parliamentary committee. It is presently legal. It is used by the Somalian community. If this bill is passed without an exception for this herb, we will be forcing Somalians to choose between their culture and the law, which does not seem to be appropriate. We are not bound by these treaties. We do not have to have these harsh penalties under international treaties either. The final reason given was that Canadians oppose liberalization of access to marihuana, and that public opinion surveys show this, according to the government. Both the ministers of justice and health claimed to me that these surveys were done in the early 1980s. After a fair amount of time, I was told by the Access to Information Coordinator that there was no record of any such surveys taken in 1980. The only record they had was from 1994, Canada’s Alcohol and Other Drug Survey, and what this survey showed is that 27 per cent of Canadians said that it should be completely legal, 41 per cent said it should be illegal but punishable by only a fine or other nonjail sentence, and that only 16.8 per cent of Canadians supported marihuana’s being illegal with a first offence being a criminal sentence, which would be the case under this bill. The remaining 14 per cent did not have an opinion. Despite the government’s claim that Canadians will not support decriminalizing marihuana, it appears that about 70 per cent would support this and only 16 per cent are very opposed. According to evidence given to me by the government, under the Access to Information Act, decriminalizing marihuana would not increase the rate of its use among Canadians, would not put us in violation of international treaties, and it would be supported by a very strong majority of the Canadian people. It seems to me there is no justification for continuing this kind of violation of people’s rights and of their property and so on, and having all these horrible things happening to marihuana smokers that Marc Emery discussed. If there is no justification for keeping it illegal, I would support the idea that we decriminalize marihuana as soon as possible and hope that you can do that. Thank you. -- Dana Larsen ([m--g--s] at [hempbc.com]) Editor, Cannabis Canada, "The Magazine of Canada's Cannabis Culture" Visit Cannabis Canada Online at http://www.hempbc.com Subscribe to Cannabis Canada! 6 issues for CDN $29 / $24 US Join the Cannabis Canada News and Information Email List! Send an email with a message of "subscribe" to [c c list] at [hempbc.com]