Why John Walters needs to get a life.

John Walters, in case you didn't know (and you probably didn't), is America's 'Drug Czar.' I didn't happen to know who he was, which just might say something about the relevance of his position.

He was in the news today rallying against Jean Chrétien’s comment about perhaps trying marijuana after he retires. According to him Canadians are 'ashamed' of the Prime Minister, and that Canada is the 'one place in the hemisphere where things are going the wrong [way] rapidly.'

All I have to say to John Walters is this: Blow Us. Collectively if possible.

If there's one thing that gets under my skin about American 'values' is their holier-than-thou approach to drug policy. I'm unsure how a country where 55% of the federal inmate population is in jail for breaking drug laws, including 37,000 for marijuana alone, can have anything legitimate to say about other country's drug policies. Wrap this up into the general fact that America imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than any other nation in the world except for Russia, and you have to wonder whether they're really doing things right.

After all, prison is one of the most expensive and least effective parts of the social security net (A great line from Howard Dean, by the way). Throwing drug users in jail is more likely to increase their rate of criminality when they're released instead of rehabilitating them. Where Canada has it right (at least in my opinion) is that punishing soft-drug users with criminal records and/or jail time isn't going to help the situation. Ensure that there is a punishment, in this case a fine, to ensure that demand is reduced from normal levels, but keep jail time and criminal records for those people who are of actual harm to the society.

Unfortunately, this is another case of America trying to throw its weight around on the international scene like a child taking a temper tantrum when things aren't going his way. It wouldn't be so bad if they could come up with studying showing that medicinal use of marijuana is ineffective, than marijuana is a 'gateway' drug that leads to harder drug use, or that it increases the level of other criminal activity. But they can't, so we're only left with the repeating mantra of 'Drugs are bad... drugs are bad...,' which needless to say doesn't hold up well to rigorous debate.

In the end, if the US wants to be respected by other countries, it must learn that we’re not going to just capitulate to their political culture just because they want us to. Bring some real ideas to the table, and we might be able to talk. Otherwise, save it for someone else.