Canada's federal government is under fire from US officials, the Canadian police, and even some of its own members of parliament for having introduced a bill decriminalising possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Under the Cannabis Reform Bill possession of less than 15 g of marijuana would still be illegal but would lead to fines of $C100 (£180; $290; €250) to $C400, depending on circumstances such as the age of possessors and whether they were driving a vehicle. Possession now carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a fine of up to $C1000.
Justice minister Martin Cauchon said that marijuana will remain illegal and that growers will suffer heavier penalties, with a doubling of the maximum prison sentence to 14 years. But he said the new legislation was needed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Canadians from clogging up the courts and getting criminal records for smoking small amounts of marijuana.
The government is concerned that the new law should not encourage marijuana use, and it has also announced that it will introduce a new five year, $C245m national drug strategy to reduce substance abuse. Part of the strategy will be a communications and education campaign to spread the message that cannabis smoking is harmful.
John Walters, the US director of national drug policy, objected that decriminalisation would increase drug use and bring more marijuana into the United States, resulting in border problems. David Griffin, executive director of the Canadian Police Association, said he fears that the wrong message will be sent to young people: that it is not all right to drink and drive but it is "to toke and drive."
Many backbench members of the Liberal government, such as Ontario's Joe Volpe, are opposed to the legislation. "It's going to be a pretty convincing argument to get me to vote for it," he told a Toronto newspaper.
As many as 100 000 Canadians are believed to use marijuana on a daily basis, and most Canadians do not believe its possession should be a crime, says the justice minister. He and Prime Minister Jean Chretien are determined to see the legislation passed this year, but some observers think its passage unlikely, despite support of decriminalisation from federal government committees and the general public.
In a front page article in the Globe and Mail newspaper, columnist John Ibbitson said the legislation "has little chance of ever being passed into law" because of the amount of opposition within the Liberal party and the lack of time before the prime minister leaves office next February. Mr Ibbitson quoted justice committee vice chairman John McKay, who is also head of the Liberal party's Ontario caucus, as saying, "How this bill is ever going to see the light of day, I don't really know."