Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jun 2005
Source: Pipestone Flyer (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005, Pipestone Publishing, Millet, Alberta
Contact:  http://www.pipestoneflyer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3736
Author: Tyson Campbell
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n898/a08.html?77711
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

RE: ONE MORE TIME, BECAUSE I LIKE IT WHEN PEOPLE TAKE VERBAL POTSHOTS AT ME

Alright you dared me to it. Last time I checked the United States had about 
100 times the population that Alberta has, so I'm not surprised that most 
of the people who wrote you are from there. But alas, there are people in 
Alberta who agree that prohibition is useless and a complete waste of 
money, me being one of them.

First of all, the Bible does not support marijuana prohibition as it 
clearly states that God gave us all the seed bearing plants for food. It's 
actually right on the first page. Clearly, I should be able to eat it 
without violating Christian spiritual directives. About the only ban that 
could be upheld on cannabis, following this logic, is on the smoking of it. 
This is very far from reality though, as we all know you are not even 
allowed to hold it in your hand without violating a Canadian law.

Second of all, drugs are rampant in our culture. My anti-prohibition views 
stem from seeing my home town of Hinton get completely overrun by crystal 
meth a decade ago. How was prohibition helping then? I have friends who got 
hooked on speed and used marijuana to successfully get off of it. Again 
prohibition was not helping anyone. To top it off, meth is still a problem 
there and I was informed recently by a recent high school graduate that 
"cocaine is the new weed." I'm scared as hell for all the kids out there. 
Police routinely lie to them about marijuana, as I was, which completely 
destroys the credibility of the police on other matters amongst our young 
population, which in turn exasperates the hard drug problem.

Prohibition has had 80 years to work its magic to no avail. Billions of 
dollars have been wasted in this effort. I am absolutely shocked that there 
are not more so-called rednecks in this province who are up in arms about 
this. This is literally another case of the Liberal government wasting our 
money.

Just to assuage your fears, I have never heard of anyone supporting a drug 
free for all. The idea is that through legalization AND regulation we can 
more effectively control the drug problem. Drugs are hiding everywhere 
entirely because of prohibition. Who knows whose kid is going to run into them?

I did not always have these views, but once I saw for myself what is really 
going on out there I learned. And you're going to have a hell of a time 
actually convincing me that prohibition is a good Christian thing to do. It 
might have seemed that way at one time, but the truth is painful.

Tyson Campbell, Calgary

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I don't personally support either your view or that of prohibition. The 
Bible is there for a guide and you may use it as you wish. I choose to live 
by what the scriptures tell me, and not interpret them for my own ends. 
However you are correct on one point, God did dedicate the use of 
everything on earth for man's use, including arsenic, but I don't see a lot 
of people jumping up to take any. We all have the God given free will to do 
what we chose, some choose wrongly.

Ted Okkerse
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom