HASKINS: IRRESPONSIBLE OR NOT?

RE: SCOTT Haskins' July 10 column on legalizing pot. Haskins, your
column is irresponsible. As a 36-year-old male, pot is simply not
part of my life. None of my friends, family or co-workers smoke it
and I almost never come across it. Saying it is everywhere is false.
To say pot is OK because cigarettes and alcohol are here is like
saying we already have the KKK and neo-Nazis, so we should endorse
Saddam Hussein too.

Do you expect your readers to accept one of 18,375 Web sites as a
reliable reference for the facts you quote? You also glossed over the
harmful side-effects. The young people in our society need facts, so
they can make up their own minds. My personal objection to legalizing
pot is that I don't want to have to inhale second-hand pot smoke.

Randy Troppmann

(Haskins will gladly take your place.)

REGARDING SCOTT Haskins' column of July 10 arguing that marijuana
should be legalized, I couldn't agree more. But Edmontonians seem to
have been kept in the dark by our Anne McLellan about the real impact
of the U.S.-led war on drugs. In 2000 the Liberal Party of Canada
approved an Alberta-led resolution calling on the government to at
least decriminalize marijuana "for all purposes."

Many of us have been trying to convince cabinet that this is the way
to go. Instead, despite Health Canada's attempts to make medical
marijuana available by a set of unworkable guidelines, we have seen
the Justice minister and the Justice Department embark on a
hysterical clamp-down, despite protestations that the law is being
"looked at."

Brian L. Fish

(Prime Minister Jean Chretien doesn't support this initiative.)