Washington, DC: Plans under consideration by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to decriminalize marijuana possession penalties would likely elicit trade sanctions from the United States, according to statements by Drug Czar John Walters this week.
Any liberalization of Canadian marijuana laws would give U.S. law enforcement “no choice” other than to respond with tighter border checks that could hinder trade crucial to the Canadian economy, Walters told the Associated Press this week.
Indiana Congressman Mark Souder, who chairs the House Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, echoed Walters’ threats. “Probably it would be some sort of change in, at the very least, spot-checking, more aggressive checking, possibly background checking” of trucks and other vehicles crossing the border, he told the AP. “Hopefully we could do it with not too much disruption, but there would be changes.”
Although U.S. drug warriors have issued similar threats toward the Chretien government in the past, they have stepped up their rhetoric since September when a special Canadian Senate committee recommended Parliament legalize and regulate the possession and use of marijuana. It is expected that Parliament will liberalize its pot possession policies next year by replacing criminal penalties with administrative fines.
Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation, said that this latest round of threats from the United States is hardly surprisingly. “The U. S. has a history of exporting its failed drug policies throughout the globe, and using strong-arm tactics to ensure that other nations do not depart from those policies,” he said, adding that U.S. officials directed similar threats toward Jamaica’s Parliament last year after it revealed that it was considering decriminalization.
In recent years, Canadian lawmakers have enacted several drug law changes that are at odds with U.S. policy, including licensing farmers to grow hemp and legalizing the cultivation and use of medicinal marijuana for qualified patients.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.