Pubdate: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2014 The Edmonton Journal Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: Jim Church Page: A21 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n646/a04.html MUDDYING THE WATERS Re: "War on drugs needs a rethink," Ideas, Steve Lafleur, Aug. 7 Those advocating for a "rethink" on the war on drugs, and particularly marijuana, need to rethink themselves. Using specious arguments about caffeine versus marijuana, Steve Lafleur tries to muddy the waters. Nevertheless, would legalizing marijuana reduce the "buy up" of drug gangs? Not, according to findings coming out of Colorado recently. There, illegal marijuana continues to flourish, maybe even more so because of inabilities to detect "legal" from "illegal," as does other illicit drug use. Moreover, study after study shows that marijuana continues to be a gateway drug to "harder" drugs, regardless of ease of availability. The "black market" continues to flourish - Lafleur is patently wrong on this. Another case in point is the trafficking of prescription drugs. While counselling a young man some time ago, he casually mentioned that he could obtain "any kind of" prescription meds and be back at our location in 15 minutes! And we were sitting in a small-town restaurant, far from the mean streets of the big city. As far as marijuana being "benign," tell that to the family of the victim struck by an intoxicated driver. Or the family of a young person who, because of ingesting THC, had their inhibitions lowered and ended up in a morgue from ingesting other, more potent drugs. No one is saying these are easy matters to deal with, but caving in and legalizing a gateway drug simply because it is proving difficult to police is no excuse for not trying. Rev. Jim Church, Leduc - --- MAP posted-by: Matt