Pubdate: Sat, 24 Aug 2013
Source: North Bay Nugget (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 North Bay Nugget
Contact: http://www.nugget.ca/letters
Website: http://www.nugget.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2226
Author: Dave Dale

HOLD THE PRESS: TRUDEAU AN AFTER-DINNER TOKER

Politicians Can't See the Forest for the Hemp Leaves

About three years ago, before he became the federal Liberal Party 
leader, MP Justin Trudeau took a puff on a joint as it was passed 
around a dinner party he hosted for old friends.

The kids were away and nobody was the wiser until Trudeau revealed as 
much during a Huffington Post media interview this week.

He has partaken a few times in his 41 years, but said he isn't 
"crazy" about it.

At the same time, the son of the late and former prime minister 
Pierre Elliott Trudeau said his support of marijuana legalization 
partly stems from an issue his late brother Michel faced.

Apparently, before he died in an avalanche, Michel Trudeau had been 
charged with pot possession after a small box of the stuff was found 
in a car that had been in an accident.

Criminal charges for pot possession might not seem like a big deal to 
a lot of people, but if you travel at all, a record pretty much means 
you're forbidden to go very far outside Canada.

Newfoundland will take you. British Columbia, naturally. Anywhere in 
that wackiest of places called the United States, not so much.

Last week, some of the top brass at police stations across Canada 
said they'd rather hand out tickets for the possession of a small 
amount of pot rather than press criminal charges.

It's a costly way to deal with a plant that grows just about anywhere 
you want it to and a large segment of the population tries at some 
point and some incorporate it in their lifestyles.

The Internet is littered with credible studies about the medicinal 
values found in the marijuana plant. It cures cancers, some say, 
although not when taken in the amounts or form most tokers enjoy. It 
definitely reduces stress, depending on the dose and type.

As for its recreational qualities, compared to so-called "legal" 
drugs like alcohol and tobacco, it's as safe as apple pie.

A booze hound will fight at the drop of a cheese stick. Stoners will 
debate philosophically about who should get to eat it and likely 
agree to share it for the good of humanity.

Hide a pot smoker's stash and they'll probably think they hid it 
somewhere and forgot. Most regular recreational users toke once or 
twice during the week, maybe more on weekends.

They can go days or weeks without and never complain.

Ask an alcoholic what it's like to be dry for a few hours, let alone 
a few days.

Tobacco smokers are worse off. Take away a nicotine addict's pack 
while at a remote cottage and you better get ready for a weekend of hell.

Seriously, it's amazing Canadians are still debating the issue in 2013.

Everybody knows the "evil" weed propaganda was all about American 
politics and business monopolies.

It's the world's biggest corporate con job to inflate pharmaceutical 
profits. And there's money to be made if the jails and courts are full, too.

I'm surprised that the common taxpayer hasn't realized how much it 
actually costs to keep pot as the gateway drug to the justice system.

Forget the medicinal value and recreational drug comparisons.

Think for a minute about the environmental impact of outlawing a 
plant that will likely outlive mankind.

If the hemp strain of the marijuana plant species, which has no 
active recreational drug qualities, didn't have the bad rep put on 
its THC-producing cousin, the planet would be much healthier.

The voracious weed grows almost anywhere (Northern Ontario sandy 
soils are perfect), it out-produces cotton for making clothes and 
it's much better than trees for providing pulp for paper products.

Natural and renewable. Better make it illegal.

Unfortunately for all of us, you can't talk about the issues, at 
least not in a frank and open manner, without it twisting into the 
polarity of politics where subjects orbit reality for infinity.

So, Trudeau took a puff three years ago. Prime Minister Stephen 
Harper claims his Tory asthma prevents him from partaking and NDP 
Leader Tom Mulcair has inhaled on occasion.

But which one of these guys actually sees the forest for the hemp leaves?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom