Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2014
Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.guelphmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418
Author: Troy Bridgeman
Page: A2

MARIJUANA LAWS MAY BE WORSE THAN THE DRUG

I agree every reasonable effort should be made to discourage young 
people from experimenting with drugs. The number of dangerous 
substances available on the street is alarming and a bad choice could 
make the difference between life and death.

However, I am not convinced that criminalizing people is a reasonable 
effort in all cases. Some drug-related activity is criminal in 
nature, but not all.

A crime, by definition, requires a victim. Who is victimized when 
someone smokes marijuana in the privacy of their own home? It's not a 
crime to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol in the privacy of your 
own home. What is the difference from a purely legal perspective?

All of these substances are different and that is why education is 
the key to resolving this debate.

The first mistake people make when raising this issue is including 
everything under one large umbrella labelled "drugs." Curiously, I 
rarely hear alcohol and cigarettes - the two most widely abused 
addictive substances - included in that generalization.

This type of oversimplification is, in my opinion, a display of 
ignorance and I find it difficult to take people who make those 
comparisons seriously.

Unfortunately, they are often the loudest voices.

Who would take me seriously if I were to say we should arrest and 
jail people for having a glass of wine with dinner because some 
moonshiners went blind from drinking grain alcohol? It is a 
ridiculous argument to make, but it is that type of logic that 
commonly clouds the issue. Drawing those kinds of analogies was a 
mistake educators made when I was young and I see the same rhetoric 
being used today.

Earlier this month, Pope Francis made a speech at a drug-enforcement 
conference in Rome condemning the idea of decriminalizing marijuana 
for recreational use. His experiences with drugs are related to his 
work with desperately poor people living in the slums of Buenos 
Aires, Argentina. Many there have chosen to escape the indignities of 
grinding poverty by smoking paco, a cocktail of cocaine and dangerous 
chemicals.

Toxic and caustic chemicals cooked up in makeshift labs by greedy 
criminals are not the same as the leaves or buds from a plant that 
has been used safely for medicinal, social and ceremonial purposes 
since before the dawn of recorded history.

Marijuana was not criminalized until the 1920s and the origins of the 
global prohibition campaign led by lawmakers in the United States had 
racist and pseudo-judicial elements that would make most people today cringe.

Pope Francis implored legislators to continue with policies that have 
done little or nothing to prevent drug use, have criminalized large 
segments of society and enriched and empowered criminal organizations 
around the world.

He described decriminalization of marijuana in Latin America and 
parts of the U.S. as a failed experiment. I don't know how he draws 
those conclusions given they are relatively new policies.

Advocates believe decriminalization of marijuana will reduce crime 
and free up law enforcement resources for more serious crimes. That 
is yet to be proven.

Many are concerned that liberalizing marijuana laws sends the wrong 
message to young people and in some ways condones its use.

Yes, there is some problem with that messaging, but that is where the 
education comes into play.

The simple truth is not all drugs are the same.

Do we keep flawed laws in place and continue to criminalize behaviour 
because we are too stubborn to come up with reasonable alternatives?

There are plenty of good reasons to never try smoking pot and most 
young people who experiment with marijuana give it up when they get 
older. If they get a criminal record as a result, however, it stays 
with them their whole life and limits opportunities to travel and work.

That is an example of how marijuana laws can do more to ruin people's 
lives than the marijuana itself.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom