Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jan 2012
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2012 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Russell Barth
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n044/a01.html

LIBERAL BAMBOOZLE

Re: Legalize weed, Grit delegates say (Jan. 16).

As someone who has been up to his eyeballs in pot activism for nine 
years, I would classify this Liberal vote to legalize pot as a 
bamboozle. The delegates did the right thing, but the party will not.

Not one single Liberal candidate has the intelligence or the guts to 
campaign on this issue because not one single Liberal candidate has 
the intelligence or the guts to explain to a voter what, exactly, 
"marijuana legalization" would even look like! (Ask one and see.)

The media will not let them campaign on this issue, as the media -- 
in general -- have a well-established and long-standing anti-pot and 
pro-police bias. The coverage last week of the "pot not as bad as 
tobacco" study is a perfect example of that.

The media continue to let people lie about the supposed dangers of 
pot (already debunked by science and history), and give the right a 
free ride when they talk wild hyperbole.

I am 42 and I don't think I will ever see legalized pot in Canada -- 
and I blame the media. If legal pot ever comes, it won't come through 
Parliament; it will come the same way same-sex marriage, abortion and 
medical marijuana became legal: through the courts.

But, then, there have already been seven court rulings that have 
effectively shot down the prohibition on pot, but the cops, the media 
and other judges simply ignore those rulings, and busts increase by 
10,000 every year.

RUSSELL BARTH

Nepean, Ont.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom