Marcel Martel, Not This Time: Canadians, Public Policy, and the Marijuana Question, 1961-1975.

Lexier, Roberta

Marcel Martel, Not This Time: Canadians, Public Policy, and the Marijuana Question, 1961-1975 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2006)

IN RECENT YEARS, especially following the publication of Doug Owram's Born at the Right Time: A History of the Baby Boom Generation (1996), the Sixties have become an increasingly popular subject of historical study and debate. Marcel Martel's study of recreational drug policies in Canada during this period contributes a great deal to these emerging debates and to a wider discussion of public policy development more generally. Although questions remain about the actual process of policy development, and more could be said about the social context within which such debates took place, Martel's book adds to an understanding of complex political processes in Canada and contributes to a number of scholarly fields, including the history of the Sixties in Canada, the history of drug policies, and the study of political processes and policy debates.

In his introduction, Martel clearly sets out what he hopes to accomplish in this book. He seeks to examine how various groups and individuals "influenced the development and implementation of public policy on drugs." (8) This he does quite successfully throughout the monograph, arguing that certain actors, including the media, interest groups, bureaucrats, and politicians, competed to shape the debate on the legalization of marijuana. To set the stage, Martel examines how, through the print media and the scientific community, recreational drug use became framed as a social problem and a subject of political debate. He then moves on to discuss how various interest groups participated in these debates and sought to influence the politicians who were ultimately responsible for any changes to public policy. Martel focuses here on four interest groups whom he claims played an important role in the debates: young people, and university students in particular; law enforcement officers; the medical establishment; and the pharmaceutical industry. As a central component of the overall argument, he states that these four interest groups had unequal access to centres of power and thus their influence over the public policy debates varied significantly. (73) Taking account of Canada's political reality, in which power is shared between the federal government and the provinces, Martel also discusses how four provincial governments, those of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island, participated in the policy debates over marijuana, arguing that provincial politicians rarely agreed on recreational drug use policy and thus failed to cooperate With one another in the national debates. (118) As well, Martel examines the federal government's strategy to deal with the public debates on recreational drug use, the establishment of the Le Dain Commission, and the ways that federal politicians, bureaucrats, and various international pressures affected the debates. Although these discussions ultimately led to few changes in Canada's drug policies, Martel concludes by arguing that this should not be seen as a failure of those who pushed for change. Rather, it illustrates the complexity of public policy debates, the strength of the forces opposed to change, and the internal divisions within the groups that sought new drug policies. Connecting these historical debates to the current debates over marijuana legalization and decriminalization, Martel leaves us with some important questions about the autonomy of the Canadian state and the complexity of the public policy process. In the end, Martel successfully illustrates how various actors sought to influence Canada's drug policies, achieving what he set out to do in this study.

However, Martel's work also raises some important questions about methodology and the ways in which the complex process of public policy development can be understood. Through his in-depth discussion of the various actors involved in the debates over recreational drug policy in Canada, Martel illustrates the complexities of public policy debates and the power relations involved in such political negotiations. Yet, a number of important questions remain: how can we judge what groups and individuals are most influential in the discussions and how can we determine the actual influence of such actors?

One question relates to the role that various groups and individuals actually played in public policy debates. Martel points to what he sees as the key groups, but this raises as many questions as it answers. For example, Martel argues that four groups were particularly important in the discussions--young people, law enforcement officers, the medical profession, and the pharmaceutical industry. Yet, he also points out that most of these groups played only a minimal role in the Le Dain Commission. It is thus unclear why these four groups are singled out as important or, alternatively, why the Le Dain Commission is seen as a key part in the public policy debates. As well, the category of youth is unclear throughout the book. Martel argues that university students were seen as representatives of their generation and thus focuses on the role they played in the discussions. (39) However, this fails to recognize the complexity of youth as a category and the divisions that existed within this incredibly diverse group. Martel also argues that the Le Dain Commission broadened the debate over drug policy and enabled the Canadian public to participate, (120) but how can we judge the actual involvement of the public and the degree to which the government actually took the opinions of such people into consideration? Also, are there other ways in which the public was able to participate in the discussions, such as through opinion pieces or letters to the editor in local or national newspapers, or were other groups and individuals also involved in the debates? In other words, how do we judge the participation of actors in policy debates and the influence of such groups on public policy decisions? These are complex issues and, while Martel acknowledges this fact, they should remain central throughout the book.

Another issue that is not dealt with sufficiently throughout the book is the social context within which such discussions were occurring. Although Martel is clearly focused on the political history of recreational drug use, more information on the social context surrounding these debates might have contributed to his study and clarified the roles played by various groups and individuals. His introductory chapter includes an excellent overview of the influence of the Baby Boom generation on society; he argues this generational group forced a reevaluation of traditional values and mores related to drug use in Canada. However, much more could have been included on the widespread social and cultural challenges that emerged during the Sixties, placing the debates over drug policies in the wider context of the period. In a similar vein, Martel does not discuss the periodization of the Sixties, although this is an important issue for Sixties historians. At times he seems to refer to the Sixties as the decade between 1960 and 1969, while on other occasions he seems to extend the period into the 1970s. This is an important question about context, and Martel should clarify what he refers to as the Sixties and how his subject relates to the other social and political movements of the period.

On the other hand, Martel does an excellent job of relating the drug policy debates of the Sixties to present-day concerns in order to highlight some of the important themes that emerge from his research, such as the complexity of public policy debates and the influence of international pressure, and to illustrate that the discussion over recreational drug policy is by no means resolved. This provides an interesting opportunity to discuss the implications of his study and to point to future areas of investigation.

Overall, Marcel Martel's study provides an important and useful discussion of public policy debates regarding recreational drug use in Canada during the Sixties. It contributes to an understanding of complex political processes and of the various ways different actors participate in such negotiations. While this raises further questions about the ways groups and individuals participate in public policy debates and their actual influence over those responsible for such policies, Martel's book is an excellent read and a useful addition to a number of scholarly fields.

ROBERTA LEXIER

University of Alberta