Pubdate: Sun, 20 May 2012
Source: Morning Star, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 The Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1352
Author: Kyle Thiel

END PROHIBITION

Why is cannabis (marijuana) prohibited?

We know it is not immoral to get high. Booze and smokes, both 
extremely toxic to humans, are here in Vernon.

It is disingenuous to say they are concerned about our youth.

Please know that kids have easy access to illegal drugs because of prohibition.

Prohibition also serves to blend the soft and hard drug markets 
causing a gateway effect, i.e. your pot dealer has access to other 
prohibited substances. And guess what? No age limits!

Many of them will deliver too. Cash only though please.

Rory White's argument that legalization will lead to increased use is 
easy to believe until one looks at the reality around the world.

Portugal, now 11 years into the legalization of all drugs, has 
demonstrated a dramatic drop in cannabis use.

In the Netherlands, where cannabis has been legally tolerated for 
years, has a cannabis-using population that is about half that of the 
U.S. where cannabis remains very illegal.

It may be counter-intuitive but there appears to be no link between 
increased use and legalization.

Is it our health?

Unlikely, since cigarettes, which kill the population of Vernon each 
year in Canada alone, are freely available to anyone over 19.

Did you know that cannabis has never killed a human in 10,000 years 
of known use?

And no, Mr. Mayes, cannabis ingestion does not kill your brain cells.

That was a lie propagated by your pals to the south in the 1980s.

Popular opinion appears to support decriminalization/legalization of cannabis.

It is time for the federal government to justify the prohibition. 
Remaining in the dark about it, as MP Mayes has obviously chosen to 
do, should not be an option when our public funds are being wasted in 
divesting liberty from our fellow citizens.

Yes, ending prohibition will leave lawyers, jail guards and RCMP 
members looking for jobs.

Big pharma will make a little less money.

And any plans to fill up privately run prisons with pot heads will no 
longer be feasible.

These reasons do not justify locking people up for harming no one.

Kyle Thiel,

Vernon
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom