Pubdate: Fri, 17 Mar 2017
Source: Cowichan Valley Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Cowichan Valley Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/cowichanvalleycitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4349
Author: D.S. Arsenault

SPEND RESOURCES ON SERIOUS ISSUES, NOT POT

Re: "Happy that police enforcing the law", (Citizen, March 17)

After reading Reed Elley's letter to the Citizen, and a similar one in
Times Colonist I had to reply.

Mr. Elley states that there is a growing amount of evidence to
indicate it is harmful to our bodies. If that is the case then why has
Health Canada approved a study on 30 children between the ages of one
to 10 to test cannabis as a treatment for epilepsy? Perhaps Mr. Elley
can explain to me why the U.S. government holds a patent (since 2003)
on marijuana. Does Mr. Elley know that pet owners are using pot on
their pets to alleviate pain? My wife is now on her third bout of
cancer, and after her second surgery commenced ingesting medical
marijuana for her cancer.

I started smoking pot in 1969 when I was 13 years old and did so for
close to 35 years, and I polled a number of current pot smokers and ex
pot smokers between 40 and 70 years of age what marijuana was a
gateway to. It was unanimous - the munchies. And these were all
gainfully employed people, business owners and retired people. Perhaps
Mr. Elley should let Willie Nelson know it's a gateway drug; he's 80
and still smokes pot so he probably doesn't have a lot of time to go
through the gate.

It bothers me when closed-minded people like him, the Times Colonist
writer, and one of our councillors that commented on Facebook about
something they have no knowledge on. Do these people even know why it
is illegal? I suspect not.

I drank alcohol for 40 years and did much more harm to myself with
this perfectly legal product.

I would like to see the municipality and the police spending their
resources on more serious issues rather than disrupting dispensaries
that are a service to people that can see and understand the benefits
of medical marijuana.

D.S. Arsenault

Chemainus
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MAP posted-by: Matt