"Ottawa - A Senate committee recommends legalizing marijuana and putting its distribution in the hands of the state, a controversial position that has touched off a national debate on the drug's use and sparked criticism from the United States."

Apparently some of you didn't notice this, so I'm posting it. The Senate in Canada is not like the Senate in the US. Senators are appointed for life by the Governor General (ie, the Crown). While they have the ability to "veto" legislative decisions made by the democratic government, they almost never do. They mostly spend their time doing long term studies on issues they feel are important to the country's governance. This report is an example of one of those studies.