Updated: Drugs & Abortion

Update Mar. 13, 06 at end of this post -- "One Medical Opinion"


What do you mean this isn't a dog?





SAVE OUR CHILDREN posted by via neutralsam, 3/11/2006. It leads to this LEAP audiovideo . The main webpage is here: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition of drugs. This is from retired police officers and it is worth the time.



Bud Talkinghorn: The Conservatives' reefer madness

I voted for the Conservatives based on what I perceived would be their fiscal prudence and their commonsense approach to social issues. While I appaud Vic Toews' ratcheting up the penalties for violent crime, his prohibitionist stance on marijuana is so wrong-headed. If he wants to tackle drug use, let him zero in on the really destructive drugs, like crack cocaine, heroin and meth. Do not clog the courts (and jails) with a mindless jihad against a drug softer than alcohol--or cough! cough!--tobacco. Surely he can see the utter failure to stem both production and sale of domestic pot. All that the biliions spent during the last three decades to stop foreign trafficking of weak weed did was to create a superior homegrown variety. It has become the major cash crop of states like Kentucky, Oregon and West Virginia. I'm sure that whatever Canada sends them is merely a top-up.

Now this nonsense scare tactic about the increased potency can be put to rest. Yes, today's homegrown is more powerful. All that means is that you smoke a whole lot less. Whereas it took five lung-burning joints to launch you to your favourite spot, now it takes half a joint. Which was worse for your delicate lung tissues?

The Vancouver police had it right when they were asked why Mark Emery was allowed to sell vast numbers of marijuana seeds unhindered. The spokesman said, "We have a serious heroin/cocaine problem here. That is behind our crime wave. Emery is way down our line of priorities." As well he should be. Do we really want to spend billions aping the American's futile war on marijuana? Do we really want to see some kid (the caught are mainly stupid kids smoking in public) sentenced to jail? While some other sensible judge gives another kid a complete discharge? Even the police, who number among the illicit tokers, of course, have taken the position of questioning whether to charge or not to charge for possession. We cannot have the absurd disparity that we see in the U.S., where two kids, convicted on the same possession charge have sentences ranging from zero time to five years in a max prison. If we could, by some futuristic device, jail all the Canadian marijuana smokers we would immediately collapse as a nation. From architects to zoologists, the help wanted listings would fill the entire paper. It would certainly end our unemployment problems, with hundreds of thousands in jail and thousands more warders and other staff to keep them there. The Conservatives must wake up to the destructive reality of what they are proposing. The Trudeau LeDain Commission on Marijuana Use said to legalize it in the 70s, and the Canadian Senate committee said the same thing in the late 90s. 600,000 marijuana convictions later, it is time to stop. For Toews to overrule such sage advise is foolhardy, in itself.

Let Joe Average cultivate a few plants for personal use and the criminal element would wither away. What ever happened to the mafia bootleggers after prohibition was repealed?

© Bud Talkinghorn


My Perspective

Bud, didn't the depression-era bootleggers, at least the ones at the top of the supply chain who were not caught on tax evasion, become solid citizens? I seem to remember something about a Kennedy and even families in Canada who became solid, respectable bottlers and/or purveyors of find wines and spirits .... but the research would take more time than I have. I'm off to see a dog and to sit in the sun.

As for my position on marijuana, I am ambivalent. I hate the stuff though I'm not sure why, and even I know that my reasons are somewhat illogical, given the arguments on the other side. I suspect that my reasons have more to do with not understanding the drugs and rock and roll culture and not fitting into any group that was into it, mostly because I'm much too uncool/square -- not a very logical position on my part, but ... I listened to some of the pot smokers' ideas spouted and I dismissed it as silly babble. They could probably sense what I thought of them. Anyway, I don't have enough knowledge and I do want to protect children. Yet, I know a few who grow the stuff or want people to think they do (imho), and they're ordinary blokes. As with most, I have special rules for them in my heart -- illogical too. Mostly, I don't want to know the details -- live and let live -- another illogical position if pot is a real danger to society's children. I have some research on the dangers of marijuana which I'll try to find when I return; perhaps there is other research; it would be useful to see on which side of the question the bulk of the evidence falls. Meanwhile, I did post on marijuana research some time in the last two years. Check the RCMP website too.

I believe this is one of those issues that needs open discussion -- that decent people who want the best for society have views that differ from mine; others concur with me. Let the discussion begin.

Don't tell decent people that the topic shouldn't be discussed; open debate has been curbed enough in Canada.

Also, I think so much would be better for young people if there were one adult in the family charged with being a stay-at-home parent and being aware of where the children are at all times -- or else. As for the pressures on teens--whether bullying, peer pressure over costly clothing, over trying drugs or anything else--if it looks as though it will be a problem, consider removing your child from the scene and home-schooling. Contact other parents who have similar concerns. Get together and find a solution so that you may raise good human beings who can stand on their own two feet. It will be after you have taken steps to protect them, to give them the tools to be independent thinkers who can withstand peer pressure, so they are capable of operating as older teens ready to stand up for what they believe or know is right. Ah, I'm on my soapbox again. NJC



Update Mar. 13, 06: One Medical Opinion

Marijuana's harm can't be ignored -- letter from "Morris Givner, Ph.D., FCACB, FCIC, Professor of Pathology (Ret.) and Associate Professor of Medicine (Ret.), Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S." National Post, March 13, 2006 -- Re: Freedom And Pot, editorial, March 11.

The National Post's editorial writer is wrong. Marijuana is a toxic and carcinogenic drug (more than 40 carcinogens). It diminishes response times, decreases motivation and leads to more addictive drugs. [. . . . ]

Michael Coren: Canada too permissive on abortion