Pubdate: Fri, 20 Sep 2002
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact:  http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Author: Bruce Symington

CANNABIS A PART OF OUR CULTURE

Editor:

Regarding your editorial of Sept. 6, Legalized Pot not a Solution.

To compare the minimal damages of cannabis with the horrendous damages of 
alcohol is a mistake. When cannabis is relegalized, people may use it 
instead of alcohol as a relaxant, and thereby reduce, not increase the harm 
to society.

Witness the World Cup of soccer, recently held in Holland. The Dutch kept 
the coffee houses and their supply of cannabis open for the duration of the 
matches, and had none of the soccer hooliganism customary in England, 
because the cannabis mellowed the hooligans out, unlike alcohol, which 
cranks them up. Cannabis use is already an established part of our culture, 
and the real harm is from the law, not the substance.

It would make as much sense to criminalize the most commonly used 
mind-altering addictive substance, which is caffeine, as to keep cannabis 
illegal.

BRUCE SYMINGTON

Medicine Hat
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