Pubdate: Tue, 29 Dec 2015
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network
Contact:  http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Cameron Cotton-O'Brien
Page: A9
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n723/a05.html

LAW WAS WRONG

Re: "No amnesty for dopers," Editorial, Dec. 26.

Saturday's editorial argues there should be no pardon for those
convicted under a previous legal regime criminalizing marijuana, even
though they would not now be prosecuted. Those poor dopers, we are
told, knew they were breaking the law at the time and so must suffer
the consequences. But of what were they guilty?

The changed legal regime implies something was wrong with that
preceding it: either the harms of marijuana were overstated or
criminalization was ineffective and possibly damaging. There is a
significant question as to what constituted these dopers' guilt and
what our societal response to it should be - are we perhaps guilty of
authoring a harmful policy?

That's a question perhaps better left to the justice minister than to
those esteemed scholars of jurisprudence who comprise the Calgary
Herald editorial board.

Cameron Cotton-O'Brien, Calgary
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MAP posted-by: Matt