Pubdate: Tue, 10 Mar 1998
Date: 10/03/1998
Source: Halifax Daily News (Canada)
Author: David d'Apollonia

To the editor:

I write regarding the editorial cartoon in The Daily News Sept.
28.

I fail to see the significance of having an elderly woman purchasing
marijuana for lumbago, as some kind of witticism. It smacks more of
arrogance and plain bigotry against the proponents of self-medication
and medical-marijuana issues.

It's shameful medical and scientific objectivity has been compromised
to accommodate the prevailing winds of repression and police state
control that drive the war on drugs around the world, particularly
against an herb such as cannabis.

Keeping a relatively safe herb such as cannabis illegal is plain
stupid and has done nothing to help children and teenagers keep free
from drug-abuse problems.

In fact, prohibitionist laws encourage crime and mistrust of
government and it is that which sends a clearly wrong signal to
children and youth. The public has been systematically lied to and
propagandized for decades! Enough is enough.

Marijuana never should have been criminalized in the first
place.

And that's something few, if any, politicians or media sorcerers are
willing to talk about.

David d'Apollonia Dartmouth