Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC) Page: 7 Copyright: 2010 Nelson Daily News Contact: http://www.nelsondailynews.com/section/nelson0303&template=letter Website: http://www.nelsondailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/288 Author: Charles Jeanes Note: in printed edition only AND THE HERB SAVED A REGION To the Editor: Re: Bob Hall's editorial on job cuts by government and IH, and rural impoverishment: A parable. In the beginning was the land and it was good, and woman and man came and lived thereon and called it Kootenay. The people multiplied and enjoyed the fruits of the land. And it came to pass that strangers arrived from the west across the deep and from the east across the mountains. Verily so many came and seized dominion over land, that the strangers deemed the original people of no account. The strangers were mighty in invention. This is the tale of generations of the strangers cities: Babylon begat Athens, and Athens Rome, Ottawa and Victoria and Vancouver. To feed their cities the strangers sent gold and lead, trees and electricity, from Kootenay. And strangers built towns wherein to dwell. Behold! there arose Nelson and Castlegar and Trail. Yet gold and trees became exhausted. Remunerated labour for townspeople grew scarce and they lamented that they had no commodity to offer on the altars of the market. Verily there was movement of people from Kootenay to cities and lands of more opportunity, so that schools and hospitals were closed. Men of power, in their towers called Parliament and Legislature and City Hall, decreed the market to be supreme. Verily some proclaimed that office work, tourists, and private entrepreneurs would suffice to redeem Kootenay's failed commodities. Yet it was not so. Insufficient employment plagued the land. And, swelling the ill-effects from failure of commodities, wags the termination of office work by rulers. Yet behold! In Nelson and lands near unto it, people might still prosper. And some, called journalists, wondered in Rolling Stone and Fifth Estate, why it was so. "Holy smoke!" they said. "What's up?" Lo, an answer! The seer Forbes said a BC commodity was verily being sold to the markets of the world. Its worth: $7 billion. Yet it was not righteous to grow and purvey it. By strange motive, for fear deep in minds of those who rule, it hath been deemed unlawful intoxicant. It is not fruit of the vine to be drunk lawfully as in long tradition. Nay, it is fruit of a green herb, lit afire, and inhaled. Though a multitude may breathe herb's monetary atmosphere, none can in truth measure its life-giving income for people of Kootenay. Thus, mere guesses prevail. Yea though it employeth, and pays rent and generated cashflow, commerce in herb be not countenanced by lawmakers, and so none shall say how great its contribution to Kootenay prosperity. And - vilest blasphemy! - it escapeth all taxation. Here endeth the lesson. And in case anyone misses the parabolic point of the tale, I will crudely restate it. We still need a commodity to make this region support large populations. Denial thrives among those who prosper in the white economy, but they would learn the truth of my intuition if their businesses suddenly lost the cashflows generated in the black alternative. Meanwhile no one can verify intuition. I myself have watched as some grow wealthy in the drug business, invest and "become legitimate." I know the perfect historical parallel: men who founded their fortunes during Prohibition; the U.S. was a rich market for alcohol made in Canada. Our economic and legal conundrum is not going away; we are all implicated. I'm glad for cash infusing local economies. I'm not happy how it's made. Criminalized commodities enrich criminals. We so-nearly decriminalized pot before Harper. Now we've regressed. Charles Jeanes, Nelson, B.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Doug Snead