WE NEED TO START WINNING THE POT PROPAGANDA WAR

In the battle against harmful drugs, society has at least two main
defences: the courts and the court of public opinion.

B.C.'s courts, however, appear powerless.

That much is evident from recent remarks by Provincial Court Judge
Doug Moss, who called marijuana grow-ops a community "curse."

The frustrated judge said he'd have liked to have sent a West
Vancouver man to jail for his role in a 362-plant marijuana grow-op,
but legal precedents prevented him from doing so.

Instead, Moss gave 24-year-old Warren William Spencer a 12-month
conditional sentence and 12 months of probation -- which really is no
sentence at all.

So, that leaves it up to the court of public opinion. If people,
especially young people, think using marijuana is cool, then grow-ops
will flourish.

But if they sense that there is real danger in this illegal drug, now
more potent than ever, then they may stay away from it in droves -- as
they have from tobacco.

The trouble is that, at least in this province, the promoters of pot
are winning the public-relations war, despite mounting evidence about
the mental and physical damage it can cause.

Senior UN official Antonio Maria Costa states unequivocally that
modern marijuana is a dangerous drug -- and not just to those who use
it.

Sadly, that message has yet to get through in British Columbia.