Pubdate: Wed, 27 Apr 2016
Source: Chilliwack Progress (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Doug Thorn
Contact: http://www.theprogress.com/contact_us/
Website: http://www.theprogress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/562
Author: Doug Thorn

DISPENSARY CLOSURE CALLED HYPOCRISY

I wish to comment on the raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in
Chilliwack. It's hard to argue with city council's official position
that the dispensaries contravene federal law and city bylaws, but I
strongly suspect that council's legal posturing is nothing more than a
smokescreen intended to mask their "moral" objection to medical
marijuana, no doubt to appease the more socially conservative element
in our community.

I'm not a medical marijuana user myself, but I believe laws, and the
enforcement of those laws, should be based on science and reason, not
hysteria and blind ideology. I find it ironic that the most vehement
opposition to medical marijuana comes from so-called Christians. Has
it never occurred to them that their all-knowing creator may have put
this amazing plant, used safely and successfully as a medicine in
numerous cultures around the world for millennia, on this Earth for
good reason?

There is a real need for this medicine in Chilliwack, and the Mayor
and council are wrong to take such a heavy-handed approach towards a
business they (or a certain segment of Chilliwack residents) don't
approve of, while taking a vastly different approach with another high
profile bylaw-violating business. This is clearly discrimination.
Since the city's mandate is to enact and enforce bylaws, not criminal
law, why are the bylaw penalties not assessed solely on the degree to
which the businesses violate city bylaws and not for other reasons
that are outside of the city's business? The wildly differing
penalties that are being handed out for bylaw infractions to
businesses the council likes and doesn't like stinks of hypocrisy. As
for the Chilliwack RCMP, I'm outraged that they're wasting my tax
dollars on persecuting sick people and the people who are trying to
provide them with a safe and natural medicine. A responsible police
service strives to protect the entire communit! y from real threats,
not some of the community from imagined threats. Surely with all the
real crime in this community that actually does harm people, the RCMP
could find higher priority issues to pour their resources into than
harassing a provider of medicine that is trying to help people.

Dispensing medical marijuana is a legitimate, medically proven
enterprise that is here to stay, and will only continue to grow,
because there is a need, there is growing demand, and the majority of
Canadians and British Columbians want it to be available. Trying to
put the genie back in the bottle is fruitless, destructive, and irrational.

Doug Thorn, Chilliwack 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D