Pubdate: Tue, 26 Dec 2006
Source: Lindsay Daily Post (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 Lindsay Daily Post
Contact:  http://www.thepost.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2333
Author: Russell Barth

As a Federal Medical Marijuana License Holder who is also married to 
one, I worry about 'Pot Pirates' even more than most. Many licenced 
medical marijuana users have been raided or robbed because of these 
stupid laws!

I park my 300-lb electric wheelchair in front of my apartment door 
every night, and I would never open the door to anyone unless I saw a 
warrant. Even then, as a public marijuana activist in Ottawa, I still 
worry about caffeine-fueled rogue cops more than I worry about robbers!

But the blame for this mess falls squarely on the shoulders of the Federal

Government. Their prohibition laws make cannabis valuable. If it were 
legal, it would be cheap. People wouldn't need to grow 5000 plants in 
a field full of booby traps or convert suburban homes or ruin high 
rise apartments. Prohibition fuels crime. This is a known fact!

In the US, during the 1930's, alcohol was prohibited much as 
marijuana is today. Children had easy access to bootleg liquor that 
blinded or killed more than a few. Gangsters ruled the streets with 
machine guns, police became less and less effective as the gangs 
wealth and power grew, and government corruption was rampant.

Mothers, grandmothers, and teachers lobbied the government to 
regulate alcohol so that it would be out of the hands of children. 
They understood than when we criminalize a popular substance, we 
create a black market than preys on children.

How is it that people from seventy years ago were so much smarter 
than we are today? Easy! They didn't believe police and government 
balderdash that says the only way to combat this problem is more 
cops, more jails, and more money!

Russell Barth

Riverside Dr.

Ottawa
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MAP posted-by: Elaine