Pubdate: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 Source: Dalhousie Gazette, The (CN NS Edu) Copyright: 2005 The Dalhousie Gazette Contact: http://www.dalgazette.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2866 Author: Phil Duguay Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n453.a08.html OF GUNS AND WEEDS To the editor, With all due respect to Mr. Kapches, it seems he has been misled by Canadian government officials into believing that four Mounties died trying to stop marijuana cultivation. In his letter "Pot: No Longer a Harmless Head Rush?" (Gazette 137:22), he states that marijuana smokers who don't grow their own are "hypocrites" because they contribute to the miseries of our national police agencies trying to fight Canada's Diet War on Drugs. It is believed that one in three Canadians has used marijuana. However, I wonder=85 how many own guns? Immediately after it was announced that these four officers were senselessly killed, some politicians tried to turn marijuana into the culprit. I felt as if I was back in the United States, where I grew up. Why didn't Canadian officials question the nation's gun laws? Was it because the Liberal party has already bungled their first major piece of gun legislation, the infamous two billion dollar gun registry foul-up? It seems that those two billion dollars could have been spent differently. Certainly, it seems that our rural RCMP officers need better training, as many news organizations have reported one of the officers killed was off-duty and unarmed. Without a doubt, this has been a grave tragedy for Canada. My heart goes out to all RCMP families, and even the family of the killer. However, we should remember that it was a deranged man with a criminal record holding a high powered rifle that killed those officers, not a weed. Phil Duguay Fourth-year history student - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin