Pubdate: Tue, 18 Mar 2014
Source: Nanaimo News Bulletin (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014, BC Newspaper Group
Contact:  http://www.nanaimobulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/948
Author: Whelm King
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n240/a06.html

GOVERNMENT'S STANCE ON POT IS 'REEFER MADNESS'

To the Editor,

Re: Canada plays follow the leader on pot laws, Opinion, March 11.

Your column misses the point of both the police and our current
government's desire to ticket cannabis.

The plan has nothing to do with loosening cannabis laws or their
opinions of the drug and those who use it. For them it is simple
pragmatism: police don't like the work of arresting a casual cannabis
smoker, more so as the cases are rarely prosecuted and even more
rarely successful, so they want something that hurts cannabis users
and is easy for them to do. Tickets fit the bill perfectly.

As for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his followers, they are doing
everything they can to perpetuate the now decades-old 'reefer madness'
so they can continue to drag us down the path the United States is
desperately trying to reverse.

Mandatory minimums, for example, have been proven time and again to be
a heavy financial and social burden on society yielding no effective
deterrence, but my, doesn't it look impressive to be 'tough on crime,'
as Richard Nixon showed us.

The only possible turning point in the misplaced and failed war on
cannabis will be when Harper is but a stain in our history books.

Whelm King via e-mail
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MAP posted-by: Matt