Officials have tinkered with recent drafts of the new marijuana legislation, to lower the amounts of marijuana that can be possessed with no more penalty than the equivalent of a traffic ticket -- to 15 grams from 30 grams, or about 20 cigarettes. The officials said they were also considering raising penalties for marijuana traffickers and producers.
The legislation was scheduled to be introduced in the Canadian House of Commons on Thursday, but officials announced that it still needed work and would be delayed for two weeks. A policy dispute over the bill is dividing Chretien's Cabinet, with Health Minister Anne McClellan cautioning that decriminalization would increase marijuana use -- at least in the short term.
But with Chretien -- and the three Liberal Party contenders to succeed him in February -- staunchly committed to decriminalization, a change in marijuana laws that is not entirely to Washington's liking is considered a near certainty.
In recent years, Canada has been criticized by officials in the US for legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Canada has also moved more slowly than the US has urged to regulate precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs, like Ecstasy.
Problems
Drug use is also an increasing domestic problem, connected with growing homelessness in Canada's largest cities. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has estimated that there are as many as 40,000 heroin users among Canada's 30 million inhabitants. The State Department, in a 2002 narcotics report, estimated annual street sales of drugs in Canada at US$13 billion.
Researchers and law enforcement officials say drug use is on the rise among Canadian youths, but the government's response generally has emphasized treatment and education over traditional enforcement crackdowns.
Vancouver, a port where Asian drugs enter the country and a trafficking gateway for much of Canada's marijuana production, has one of the most open drug subcultures of any city in the Western Hemisphere. The Downtown Eastside has become such an eyesore that it was the major issue of last year's municipal election and is an impediment to the city's effort to be selected as the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Program
In his election campaign, Campbell promised that he would install the first of several regulated injection sites by Jan. 1. But six months into his term, a clinic for supervised intravenous drug use is still facing financing hurdles and awaiting regulatory approval from Ottawa.
Campbell said he was confident that the federal Health Ministry would give him the go-ahead in the next couple of weeks, and a nonprofit group has already been granted a building permit to prepare a new site.
Mark Townsend, 42, the director of the Portland Hotel Society, the nonprofit group, said his organization will proceed with the center even if the federal government does not go along. "We want to make sure it is inviting, not an eyesore," he said.
"It should be easy and inviting. And if then they want to talk about detox while they are chilling out, that's great," he said.
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