Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2001
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  #250, 4990-92 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T6B 3A1 Canada
Fax: (780) 468-0139
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonSun/
Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/home.html
Author: Matthew Rajala
Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor; headline by newshawk

ISSUE OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

CALL ME weird, but as a student at the U of A, I feel obliged to think
for myself, an increasingly rare practice. This is why I find myself
intrigued by the current issue of marijuana legalization.

Recently, I saw a cigarette package labelled "Warning: Each Year the
Equivalent of a Small City Dies from Tobacco Use," with a death total of
45,000.  Alcohol was also on the package, counting 2,900 deaths. I asked
myself, where is marijuana?

A little further research and I learned that the total number of deaths
each year attributed to marijuana is zero. Zero? How can a devastating
drug such as nicotine be legal while a drug less harmful than sugar
isn't?

What sparked this debate was a documentary I recently saw called Grass.
This film explained everything. I'm not some stoner advocating
legalization so I can smoke up on the street and not get busted. I don't
even use it. I'm just an average guy who, for a change, decided to think
for himself.

Matthew Rajala

(Fair comment.)
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MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk