The Canadians want to decriminalize pot possession, as we reported here. U.S. Drug Czar John Walters is opposed to the idea and suggests it will present a problem with border crime. He went to Buffalo last week to make a speech about it.

The czar of anti-drug enforcement in the U.S. told us Thursday that we in Canada shouldn't lower the penalties for possession of pot because marijuana is bad for us, especially if we're thinking of crossing the border.

Just to make sure we heard him, John Walters came all the way from Washington to Buffalo to deliver his message, just as a committee of MPs was recommending that people who possess or cultivate less than 30 grams of pot should not face criminal prosecution, but a fine.

Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, should have saved himself the trip. How we deal with drugs or any other domestic issue is up to us, not the White House. The laws we pass apply to our citizens, and how they are perceived in the U.S. or anywhere else has nothing to do with it.

Walters would like us to deal more harshly with the traffickers and big-time growers, and we should. But we're dealing with our recreational pot-smokers the way we think is appropriate, and Walters should butt out.