Pubdate: Wed, 28 Feb 2007
Source: Nipawin Journal, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2007 The Nipawin Journal
Contact:  http://www.nipawinjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/867
Author: Russell Barth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

DARE = DISASTER

"Perhaps those who criticize others for being misinformed should 
educate themselves."

Indeed. If Ryan Kiedrowski would examine Canadian history prior to 
1982, he would find the answer to his question: "If this drug is so 
great, why is it still considered illegal to possess it?"

Marijuana was prohibited in 1923 based on racist lies and "supposed 
dangers" that never actually existed. The MPs who passed the 
legislation never even read it! It took 14 years before a single 
marijuana possession charge was filed in Canada.

Face it: cops lie about pot. The RCMP have been caught lying and 
exaggerating about marijuana, their bust reports, the dangers, and 
the medical benefits again and again and again. They do this to 
instill fear and fealty in the general population, and to protect 
their ever-expanding budgets and powers of coercion and intrusion.

Marijuana has dozens of medical applications, and was the one of the 
most prescribed medications in Canada's pharmacopoeia until it was 
prohibited. But it would cost billions to develop it into a 
patentable pharmaceutical capable of competing with the simple, 
cheap, raw plant. Big Pharma uses their money and influence over the 
government to keep marijuana illegal. Imagine it this way: What would 
happen if the coffee lobby had so much power as to make apple juice illegal?

Marijuana represents freedom and the "counterculture." Police, 
government, and big corporations are bent on "control," and people 
using marijuana are harder to "control" because they are prone to 
critical thinking, questioning authority, and demanding civil rights.

So really, politics is the only reason pot is still illegal! The 
politics of control.

Kiedrowski's assertion that "the presence of RCMP officers in schools 
brings with it another message - that police are not people to be 
feared. The interaction by officers and students should be promoted, 
not criticized" is absolute nonsense!

The message from police and government is "obey without question, or 
suffer the consequences! You have already been assimilated, so quit squirming!"

DARE's record should speak for itself with one word: disaster.

As for offering alternatives, Educators For Sensible Drug Policy 
(www.efsdp.org) offers a full program based on fact-and science based 
education, devoid of fear-mongering and "obedience oaths."

Furthermore I use pot all day, every day and I could still out-debate 
any police officer on this topic! You give me one hour with a school 
full of kids, and I can get way more of them to avoid or quit drugs 
than any hyperbole-spouting control-freak police officer! And unlike 
the cops, I wouldn't use taxpayer's dollars to finance it either - I 
would do it for free!

Russell Barth

Federal Medical Marijuana

License Holder, Ottawa, Ont.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman