Pubdate: Wed, 10 Dec 2014
Source: Morning Star, The (CN BC)
Column: MP REPORT
Copyright: 2014 The Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1352
Author: Colin Mayes
Note: Colin Mayes is MP for Okanagan-Shuswap.

DRUG USE A CONCERN

I am always puzzled by the national media's focus on trivial issues 
and missing the more important challenges facing society and 
governments. Our society is being under-minded by substance abuse and 
very few people are talking about it.

One in five Canadians (21.6 per cent ) has a substance or alcohol 
abuse problem. Substance abuse costs us $40 billion per year in 
Canada. Eighty per cent of federal offenders have a history of 
substance abuse issues. Six million Canadians are in recovery. 
Contrary to the solutions of the NDP and Liberals to legalize 
marijuana, because they say it is just a soft drug, studies found 
that 40 per cent of people that start using marijuana move on to harder drugs.

Marijuana is proven to cause physiological side effects such as 
schizophrenia and paranoia. Smoking one joint has the same impact on 
the health of your lungs as smoking twenty cigarettes. We all know 
families that have lived these realities with their children.

The leader of the Liberal Party, Justin Trudeau, needs to ask these 
parents if legalizing marijuana is a good public policy. Both 
terrorists that murdered Canadian soldiers had substance abuse 
issues. It is easier to radicalize a person that is not mentally 
stable due to substance abuse. A large percentage of crime committed 
is linked to substance abuse and the cost to our health system is 
immense. A nurse told me that 70 per cent of emergency room cases in 
a Calgary hospital were related to substance abuse.

Our Conservative government has funded money for more drug 
enforcement and for programs to help people kick their addictions. 
The RCMP's DARE program to educate school children is to the credit 
of members willing to take time to organize this program. We as 
citizens must take this seriously and start educating our children 
and work at the community level to reach out to our friends and neighbours.

I have heard of grandparents taking care of their children's children 
because the parents had drug addictions and could no longer take care 
of their own children. They thought that after raising their own 
children they would now have time to relax and enjoy their 
grandchildren. Instead, they now have to be parents again. I was 
surprised to hear that a number of families in the riding have to 
deal with this issue.

Legalizing marijuana or any drug addiction is just going to manifest 
this problem. The solution lies with our society to take a stance and 
work together in becoming a drug-free community. I believe we can do 
it one person at a time.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom