Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 06/02) - NWT Senator Nick Sibbeston has rejected a Senate committee call for legalizing marijuana.

A Senate committee on illegal drugs recommended legalizing marijuana Wednesday. Not everyone in the North agrees. - Merle Robillard/NNSL photo

"From my vantage point I guess I'm concerned. Just as I'm concerned about liquor killing people, I'm concerned about what drugs would do to young people," said Sibbeston from his Fort Simpson home Thursday. "It's like saying, 'it's OK' and sanctioning it in a sense."

The Senate committee, headed by Progressive Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, issued a 600-page report Wednesday recommending marijuana be made legal for those aged 16 and older, and that those convicted of possessing cannabis be given amnesty.

About 25,000 people are charged every year with marijuana offences in Canada.

Under the committee's recommendations, purchasing marijuana would be no more difficult than acquiring alcohol or cigarettes.

A House of Commons committee is also pondering whether or not to recommend legalizing marijuana. A report is due in November.

Sibbeston said cultural differences in the North have influenced his views on marijuana. He said aboriginal people already have enough difficulties with alcohol.

"I just think that native people in particular come from a different culture and a way of life," said Sibbeston, who has long-supported an alcohol free lifestyle. "So anything like alcohol or smoking has quite an affect on them.

NWT chief medical officer Dr. Andre Corriveau said there simply hasn't been enough research to justify the committee's recommendations.

"I have a problem with marijuana being smoked, personally speaking," said Corriveau, noting that marijuana, like cigarettes, contains harmful tar.

"Physicians, even in the terms of the medical use of marijuana, have been a bit lukewarm about the concept because the proven benefits are still very scant."

Yellowknife resident Charles Boulet contacted Yellowknifer early Thursday to applaud the Senate committee's findings.

"It doesn't matter if you drink, smoke or not," said Boulet. "It's a matter of recognizing the reality and putting some controls on it."

He said it would be better to simply legalize marijuana, then tax it.

"If we try nothing different, one thing is for sure," said Boulet.

"The number of people using it is going to increase, and the cost associated with policing it and punishing it is going to increase as well. So where are we then?"