Pubdate: Thu, 05 Apr 2001
Source: Powell River Peak (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Peak Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1998
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/734
Authors: Scott MacLeod, Lana Blair, Terry Ewan, Susan Hill, Evelyn Dolley, 
Cindy Smith, Marianne Smisko, The LEAD (Let's Educate About Drugs) Committee
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n434/a02.html

STOP MARIJUANA

We would like to start our response to the letter written by Dana Larsen of 
the BC Marijuana Party ["Reconsider marijuana," Letters, March 7] with the 
question "What have you been smokin', Dana?"-but we all know what he's been 
smoking.

Funny how marijuana advocates give credence to the harmfulness of this drug 
with the very words that come out of their mouths. Why should we British 
Columbians be proud to boast of so-called billions in revenue - don't know 
where the figures come from - from an illegal activity? Imagine those nasty 
police officers tracking down resourceful entrepreneurs while they destroy 
their landlord's homes. The nerve.

We must not worry about the loss of jobs in the law-enforcement area, if 
marijuana were legal. The jobs will be more than made up in the medical and 
substance-abuse counselling fields. What's a few more health statistics? 
After all, aren't people cutting down on cigarette smoking? Those health 
risks have to be made up from somewhere don't they?

The drug-addiction clinics will be looking forward to have more marijuana 
addicts on their caseload. All that heroin and cocaine addiction gets a 
little boring sometimes. After all, isn't marijuana just a harmless herb?

Come to think of it, isn't heroin made from a plant, and cocaine, too? Wow, 
maybe we will have to rethink this. Maybe we shouldn't just let our hair 
down and smoke our brains out. Is it possible that smoking marijuana might 
interfere with our growing up, parenting, education, driving, 
relationships, work safety, etcetera? It does make one think.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens