| Origins of Current Policy |
"The decision to criminalize cannabis was made "without any apparent scientific basis nor even any real sense of social urgency"
– Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 12, P. 274
"There has never, in history, been a good reason presented for marijuana being illegal," said Banks. "It's fundamentally important for people to understand that it's never been based on the facts. It's non-toxic, it's not addictive and has no provable, long-term irreversible effects."
– Senator Tommy Banks, Deputy Chair of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs
"In short, it is remarkable that, over seventy-five years later, we should still not know why cannabis was placed on the list of prohibited drugs."
– Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 12, P. 257 |
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| Prohibition: Ineffective. Expensive. Harmful. |
"The continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself."
– Senate Report - Summary Report P. 45 |
"Clearly, current approaches are ineffective and inefficient. Ultimately, their effect amounts to throwing taxpayers' money down the drain in a crusade that is not warranted by the danger posed by the substance. It has been maintained that drugs, including cannabis, are not dangerous because they are illegal but rather are illegal because they are dangerous. This is perhaps true of other types of drugs, but not of cannabis."
– Senate Report - Summary Report P. 38 |
"Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use."
–
U.S. President Jimmy Carter – Message to Congress, August 2, 1977 |
Prohibition establishes a black market, he said, and “keeps prices artificially high ... attracting organized crime.”
Paradis argued prohibition betrays the role government seeks to play – the protector of public health – by driving drug use and abuse underground, contributing to death, illness and the spread of disease.
“It is also a serious and unnecessary drain on the resources of police, prosecutors, courts and corrections,” said Paradis.
“Ending prohibition is not giving up. It is nothing to do with admitting defeat. It is nothing more than recognition that a policy adopted almost a century ago for all the wrong reasons does not only fail to yield any results, it has created unintended consequences. It endangers our children far more than the drugs do.”
– Vancouver judge Jerry Paradis [source] |
"There is no logical basis for the prohibition of marijuana" "Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia. I haven't even included the harm to young people. It's absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for smoking pot. More disgraceful is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes."
– Milton Friedman |
"I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal."
–
Milton Friedman |
"Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could."
– William F. Buckley Jr. |
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| Costs of Current Policy |
"We estimate the cost of enforcing cannabis drug laws to be closer to $1-1.5 billion per annum.
–Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 18, P. 436
The principal public policy cost relative to cannabis is law enforcement and the justice system; we estimate this to represent a total of $300-$500 million per annum.
–Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 18, P. 436 |
| Canadian Cannabis Arrest Statistics |
| Year |
Arrests |
| 2000 |
- |
66,171 |
| 2001 |
- |
70,624 |
| 2002 |
- |
69,989 |
| 2003 |
- |
60,670 |
| 2004 |
- |
67,832 |
| 2005 |
- |
59,973 |
– Source: CannabisLink.ca
Over 90,000 drug-related incidents are reported annually by police; more than three-quarters of these incidents relate to cannabis and over 50% of all drug-related incidents involve possession of cannabis;
– Senate Report - Summary Report P. 24
1.5 million Canadian citizens now have criminal records for possession of cannabis.
– Source: John Howard Society: Canadian Cannabis Policy - Factsheet 1, 2002 |
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| Harms From Cannabis |
The costs of externalities attributable to cannabis are probably minimal; no deaths, few hospitalizations, and very little loss of productivity."
– Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 18, P. 436
"Cannabis is widely used in every part of the world, does not have the harmful effects ascribed to it, and poses little risk to public health."
– Senate Report Vol. 3, CH. 19, P. 467
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man."
– U.S. DEA Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young, 1988
Excerpt from U.S. Federal Court Decision
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| Benefits of Legalization |
"[Legalization] would prove beneficial, not only for users, but also for the federal and provincial governments because of the considerable revenue they might well derive from the sales taxes on such a popular product."
– Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 12, P.281 |
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| Cannabis Potency |
Canada
The THC content of the 3,160 marihuana samples analyzed during the three-year period varies considerably. Although the highest value recorded was 25 percent, the yearly country-wide averages are much lower: 6 percent for 96-97, 5.5 percent for 97-98, and 5.7 percent for 98-99 (figure 7). In fact, almost a third of the samples were under 3 percent.
– Source: RCMP website
|
U.S.
"Average potency of all tested samples has increased 52.4 percent (from 5.34 percent THC to 8.14 percent) just within the past 5 years."
– Source: National Drug Threat Assessment 2007 - U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center (view graph)
|
U.K.
"There is no evidence of a significant increase in potency," authors determined. "Today's report shows that effective potency of cannabis in nearly all EU countries has remained quite stable for many years, at around 6-8 percent THC."
"Statements in the popular media that the potency of cannabis has increased by 10 times or more in recent decades are not supported by the limited data that are available from either the USA or Europe," the report concluded.
– Source: An overview of cannabis potency in Europe (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction)
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| Effect of policy on use rates |
| Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa lawyer who specializes in drug policy issues, noted: "The criminal law does not prevent people from using marijuana, nor does legalization force people to use it." [source] |
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| Cannabis and Driving |
2002 Report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs
"Cannabis: Our Position For A Canadian Public Policy"
Chapter 8: Driving under the influence of cannabis |
| • |
Cannabis alone, particularly in low doses, has little effect on the skills involved in automobile driving. |
| • |
Cannabis, particularly in the doses that match typical doses for regular users, has a negative impact on decision time and trajectory. |
| • |
Cannabis leads to a more cautious style of driving. |
| • |
The effects of cannabis when combined with alcohol are more significant than for alcohol alone. |
| • |
The visual recognition method used by police officers has yielded satisfactory results. |
|
| More "drugged-driving" information resources: CannabisFacts.ca/DruggedDriving |
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| Gateway Theory |
"Cannabis itself is not a cause of other drug use. In this sense, we reject the gateway theory"
– Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 18, P. 436
We feel that the available data show that it is not cannabis itself that leads to other drug use but the combination of the following factors:
| • |
Factors related to personal and family history that predispose to early entry on a trajectory of use of psychoactive substances starting with alcohol; |
| • |
Early introduction to cannabis, earlier than the average for experimenters, and more rapid progress towards a trajectory of regular use; |
| • |
Frequenting of a marginal or deviant environment; |
| • |
Availability of various substances from the same dealers. |
| – Senate Report - Vol. 1, CH. 6, P. 125 - "Stepping stone to other drugs?" |
|
"Young people often get their first opportunity to use marijuana years before they get their first opportunity to use harder drugs, Morral said. "Kids with a propensity to use drugs will use whatever drugs they have an opportunity to use," he said. "And so they use marijuana first" because it is readily available."
– RAND Study Casts Doubt on Gateway Theory -
Dec. 2002 - RAND Corporation |
No evidence has been found implicating cannabis as a gateway drug.
– John Howard Society - Canadian Cannabis Policy - Factsheet 1 - 2002 |
"Using marijuana puts children and teens in contact with people who are users and sellers of other drugs. So there is more of a risk that a marijuana user will be exposed to and urged to try more drugs."
–
"Marijuana: Facts for Teens" 1998 - National Institute on Drug Abuse (U.S.) |
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| Medical Marijuana |
"Patients will have difficulty finding a medical practitioner willing to complete the required declaration forms, and even more difficulty accessing the appropriate specialists. This situation has created an unacceptable barrier to access and one must conclude that physicians should not be the "gatekeepers" under the MMAR, a responsibility that they themselves do not desire. Even Health Canada recognizes that there is a problem."
– Senate Report Vol. 2, CH. 13, P. 310
"There is no justification for making [medicinal] cannabis an option of 'last resort'."
– Senate Report Vol. 2 CH. 13, P. 311
"Depriving an individual of the ability to choose marijuana as medication to alleviate the effects of a serious illness does violate the rights protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
– Senate Report Vol. 2 CH. 13, P. 312
"We are convinced that the government should not be the only distributor of cannabis intended for therapeutic purposes."
– Senate Report Vol. 2 CH. 13, P. 313 |
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| Exports to the United States |
"Canadian-produced marijuana accounts for
only approximately 2% of overall U.S.
marijuana seizures at its borders."
– Source: United States-Canada Border Drug Threat Assessment, Oct.2004
46% of the cannabis consumed within
the U.S. is imported from Mexico.
– Global Illicit Drug Trends, 2002 - United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention
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| International Treaties |
"We recommend that Canada notify the international community of its intent to seek the declassification of cannabis as part of a public health approach that would include stringent monitoring and evaluation."
– Senate Report Vol. 3, CH. 19, P. 467 |
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