Pubdate: Fri, 07 May 2010
Source: Columbia Valley Pioneer, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 The Columbia Valley Pioneer
Contact: http://www.columbiavalleypioneer.com/contact.html#letter
Website: http://www.columbiavalleypioneer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4207
Author: Russell Barth

WE ARE HERE; WE ARE HIGH, AND WE ARE NOT LEAVING

Dear Editor:

I was amused by the meandering balderdash offered up by letter writer 
A.W. Shier. Mr. Shier says "Give the RCMP a break! They enforce laws; 
they don't make them or have much influence in developing them."

Nonsense. They lobby constantly, they exaggerate the value of their 
busts, they exaggerate the dangers of both cannabis and cannabis 
growing, and they insist - despite any evidence to support the 
assertion, and in spite of all evidence to the contrary - that 
prohibition is the best way to deal with this issue.

Give them a break? Canadians have had 100 years of this propaganda 
and balderdash. Give us a break!

Marijuana prohibition is costing taxpayers about $1 billion annually 
in cops, courts, and cages, and all we have to show for it is a 
flourishing gangster community and contaminated product.

A regulated marijuana market would save us that $1 billion every 
year, and - according to the hippies at the Fraser Institute - would 
generate an additional $3 billion in annual tax revenue. Oh yeah - 
then there is the $1-1.5 billion increase in tourism that we would 
likely see. And yet the police lobby vehemently against legalization. 
Give them a break, indeed.

It should also be noted that on December 10th, 1997, Canada's 
marijuana laws were declared unconstitutional by Justice Patrick 
Sheppard, a decission which was upheld by the Ontario Court of 
Appeals, July 31st, 2000 (Catzman, Charron, and Rosenberg).

This decision was not appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and 
the government has not re-enacted a Criminal Code statute upon 
marijuana. Therefore, marijuana is legal, and has been for about 10 
years. Just like the prohibitions on same-sex marriage, medical 
marijuana, and abortion, the prohibition died in court, not Parliament.

In 2003, you may recall, the law fell again in Ontario and pot was 
legal until October of that year. So really, the prohibition under 
which police are busting people is shaky at best, and at worst, 
completely invalid.

It is explained in detail at 
http://www.greenpassion.org/showthread.php?t=17635 and at 
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=polcoa .

Shier says that "...Barth suggests that pot 'actually fights cancer'...".

No, Mr. Shier, science shows that cannabis fights cancer and 
stimulates the body's own cancer-resistance systems. Google it.

Pot is not a cancer among our youth. Prohibitionists and their 
outrageously counterproductive policies are the thing that is eating 
away our entire world like a virulent infection.

I strongly suggest Shier move to one of those "....places on this 
planet you would be shot for simple possession", because we are here, 
we are high, and we are not leaving.

I promise to continue to loudly promote the herb that has saved the 
lives of my sick wife and myself, and the lives of many of my 
friends, and I will continue to denounce the immoral and obscene 
prohibition that keeps us from it.

Russell Barth
Ottawa 
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart