Pubdate: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 Source: Langley Advance (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc. Contact: http://www.langleyadvance.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248 Author: Bruce Codere Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n974/a01.html?1326 MARIJUANA SAFER THAN WATER Dear Editor, I completely disagree with Kait Huziak, who is utterly misinformed about Cannabis and prohibition. Fact: opium and Cannabis were legally prescribed medicines in Canada until 1908 and 1932, respectively. No, we do not need to legalize a thing just because it is desired, but when that thing is Earth's most medicinally active plant, we're not just talking about any old thing, are we? Here is the growing list of more than 1,000 studies proving the medicinal efficacy of Cannabis: http://medpot.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=80742 Here are the more than 200 patents on Cannabis issued by the U.S. government: http://www.patentstorm.us/search.html?q=cannabinoid&s.x=11&s.y=14&s=s Here are the two purchased by the U.S. government by the Bush regime while it spat venomous lies at a media addled public: http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6630507/description.html and http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7109245/fulltext.html . Legalization would lead to decreased consumption, as evident in Holland, whose tolerance policy is a close approximation. Holland is closing prisons because its crime rate is so low. Our government wants to ramp up prohibition by doubling spending on prisons when our overall crime rate has been going down since 1992. Legal drugs - which includes pharmaceuticals - kill vastly more Canadians than illicit drugs. Cannabis is safer than drinking water, table salt, or chocolate chip cookies. Cannabis is a weed harder to eradicate than dandelions, and nearly worth it's weight in gold. What more evidence do you need? Bruce Codere Fox Creek, Alberta - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr