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A News Analysis By Terence T. Gorski (5-28-01) Tom Cohen of the Associated Press reported on May 28, 2001 that Canadas drug control insurance policy is slowly but understandably shifting toward de bendizing hemp. This Canadian political movement is in opposition to topical trends in US drug law and could influence future watchfulness of drug policy in the coupled States toward a public health addiction policy that foc occasions upon prevention and treatment and away from a criminal justice drug policy that focuses upon punishment as a deterrent.Canada has historically been more tolerant of marijuana than the United States and arrest statistics show the dissimilarity in the two nations approaches. The Canadian Center on Substance vitiate state about 25,000 people were arrested in Canada for simple possession of marijuana in 1999. The U.S. figure for that year under the zero tolerance policy of the U.S. medicine Enforcement Administration was 24 times higher, exceeding 600,00 0, says the National Organization for the enlighten of Marijuana Laws in Washington. The U.S. population is about eight times that of Canadas. arbitrator Minister Anne McLellan says the issue should be studied, and a new Parliament citizens committee on drug matters get out look at decriminalization. Conservative ships company leader Joe Clark is urging the elimination of criminal penalties for possessing a splendid heart of pot. Its unjust to see someone, because of one decision one night in their youth, carry the stigma - to be barred from studying medicine, law, architecture or other fields where a criminal record could present an obstacle, Clark said last week. The government has proposed expanding medicinal use of marijuana, and the Canadian Medical knowledge Journal recently supported full decriminalization. Canadas Supreme Court will consider a case this year that contends criminal charges for the personal use of marijuana violate constitutional rights. Making possess ion and use of small amounts of marijuana a civil offense - akin to a barter fine- instead of a criminal violation would move Canadian policy closer to attitudes in The Netherlands and away from the United States, its neighbor and biggest trade partner.U.S. anti-drug activists are worried that legalization of marijuana in Canada could depress prices in the United States making marijuana more available. Legalization in Canada would also advertize the arguments of American advocates for easing U.S. drug laws. Joseph A. Califano Jr., president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, and a actor U.S.