WAR OF WORDS - MARIJUANA

It's no secret that pot is one of B.C.'s biggest cash crops, and to
many foreigners it's fast becoming one of our province's primo
attractions. Yet it's also a source of a great deal of ongoing crime
and controversy, from grow-ops to police raids.

Bud is an inescapable part of our culture, but the question remains,
should it be legal?

Pot Prohibition is the true root of many social ills

Pro

By Liam Britten

Marijuana has many adverse health effects. Marijuana is responsible
for crime and gang activity. Marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs.

Odds are, if you've ever discussed the issue of marijuana prohibition
with anyone, you're bound to have heard these three arguments. Tried,
tested and true, these seem to be the go-to talking points for anyone
who opposes legalizing pot. Trouble is, they don't really carry much
water. All of the above claims are questionable at best, and in some
cases, it is pot prohibition that causes the social ills associated
with weed.

What exactly are the health concerns associated with pot? Lung cancer?
That was recently disproven in a 30-year study by the University of
California. Addiction? Claims about addiction are shaky at best, and
have only shown psychological addiction-you know, the kind of
addiction you get from playing too much Guitar Hero. In fact, the most
conclusive studies of health risks associated with pot offer only
minor medical concerns, things like mild psychological withdrawal,
bronchitis, and gum disease. If the valiant crusade to stop gum
disease is why we're fighting marijuana legalisation tooth and nail,
they better lock up Willy Wonka and Bazooka Joe along with the weed
dealers.

Is marijuana responsible for higher crime rates? I think marijuana's
prohibition is the more likely culprit. Take, for example, the U.S.
prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s and 30s, which made gangsters rich
and brought about drastically high crime rates associated with gang
violence. These are exactly the kinds of problems marijuana
prohibition is causing in Vancouver, and indeed all of Canada. Because
marijuana is outside of the law, these gangsters get rich from their
lucrative pot monopoly, built on violence and intimidation; the only
way to change this is to bring pot into the legal system, where
gangsters won't have an incentive to make profit on it. After all, the
gangs don't make their money off of selling alcohol anymore, because
it's legal and cheap. They simply have no incentive.

The only thing I consider pot a gateway to is a bag of Doritos. But
joking aside, this is perhaps the flimsiest argument the prohibition
crowd has to offer. Consider this; how is it that 53% of British
Columbians have smoked pot within their lifetimes, but only 0.3% have
ever tried heroin? This is not a terribly strong correlation. However,
in all fairness, most hard drug users I've known all started with pot,
but for this gateway effect, I think prohibition is to blame. Let's
talk hypothetically; if you go to a convenience store to buy milk, and
chocolate is displayed prominently, it stands to reason that you are
more likely to buy that chocolate than someone who's never been to the
store, right? With this in mind, I would argue that someone who goes
to a drug dealer's house to buy weed is more likely to buy a hard drug
than someone who never has been to that house. And the solution to
this problem is simple; if marijuana is under the same roof as hard
drugs, then let's start cutting the dealers out of the pot game! If we
can legalize pot, then we can better control who is selling it, who
they are selling it to, and make sure they're not selling other,
harder drugs.

There's many other reasons to legalize pot; once it's sold
legitimately, we can start taxing it, which could either increase
government revenues, or cause other taxes to decline. Likewise, once
it's being sold legitimately, we can start controlling the product
itself, and make sure no bad weed hits the streets; prison populations
will fall, and the RCMP and other police services can start worrying
about real offenders instead of someone with a few joints.

In the end, I think the best reason to end prohibition is because
prohibition is not just the War on Drugs, it's a war on regular
citizens. Prohibition is an attack against our freedom of choice, and
our freedom of control over our own bodies. Canada is a progressive
nation, and as a progressive nation, I like to think that Canada
avoids war whenever possible; even when the war is against drugs.

Nothing to gain from legalization

Against

By Garth McLennan

With all of the major drug problems lately, one possible solution that
has consistently been brought up is the legalization of drugs. What is
even more common is the clamuouring by some of the public to "at
least" make weed legal.

What many don't seem to realize, however, is that legalizing pot, or
any drug for that matter, has very little positives. Legalization
means that more people would become far more likely to experiment with
drugs, and that definitely is not a good thing.

Now, while pot isn't even close to being as bad for you as cocaine,
heroine or crystal meth, in the wake of legalizing marijuana it
wouldn't be long before people would be saying that those harder drugs
should be legal as well. Drugs would be even more prominent than they
already are in mainstream culture.

They health risks to weed aren't that well known, but they still
exist. It has been proven that young people who smoke pot are three
times more likely to develop periodontal disease than non-smokers.
Periodontitis is an affliction of the mouth that can be extremely
harmful to the teeth and gums.

Gum diseases such as periodontitis send bacterial products into the
bloodstream. This increases the likelihood of heart disease and the
possibility of strokes.

Another common comment from the supporters of drug legalization is "if
so many people are doing it, who cares if we make it legal?" Well, why
should the government do something wrong just to appease people?

The fact is drugs are bad. They are bad for you and do nothing
positive for your system. Now, some people will say that cigarettes
are worse for you than weed, and they are legal, so what gives? Well,
I don't think cigarettes should be legal either, but that's another
argument for another day.

Some have said that smoking weed is a matter of personal choice. "It's
my body and I can decide what I want to do with it" seems to be the
prominent line. Well, if you saw someone deliberately hurting him or
herself, wouldn't you want to stop the pain at the source? That is the
long and the short of it. Just because pot can bring temporary
happiness, the fact remains that smoking it for prolonged periods of
time is harmful for the body. So it's just like you witnessing people
doing themselves harm.

People have also said that the war on drugs is virtually over and has
been a failure. First off, that isn't necessarily true, and even if
the war on drugs hasn't been a complete success, does that mean that
we should bow to the drug lords who have caused so much violence on
Vancouver streets? Just because you're losing at something doesn't
mean you should up and quit.

There are a number of questions that must be answered before the
legalization of drugs should be considered. What age requirements will
be put upon users? How exactly will legalizing any sort of drug reduce
addiction? And will there be a limit upon the amount you are permitted
to use?

Sad but true, the number of drug treatment facilities in British
Columbia are sorely lacking. However, legalizing drugs won't help the
addiction crisis. It won't stop people from using drugs to excess. In
all likelihood, legalizing drugs will increase the number of users.

Over the past several years in the United States, there has been a
general decline in the statistics of drug users.

Recent studies have shown teenage drug use is falling. While this can
hardly be thought of as a total victory, it makes it much more
difficult for people to label the war on drugs as a failure.

Legalizing weed, or any other drug, is not a good route to take. It
does nobody any good and there are far too many negative aspects to
make it even remotely a good choice. Health problems, addiction
possibilities and the consensus of knowing we didn't do the right
thing are just a few of the reasons for keeping pot illegal.