HEY, B.C.-BUD-LOVERS: TOKING UP'S HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH, AFTER ALL

It's high time we ended the romantic fog surrounding Vancouver's drug
culture. Drug-taking is no longer cool, as we baby boomers mistakenly
thought it was. And people who use soft or hard drugs, from cannabis to
cocaine, are stupid. They run huge health risks.

That much is evident from an article in the prestigious British Medical
Journal that indicates the ill-effects of smoking marijuana are comparable
to those of smoking tobacco.

Prof. John Henry and two other research doctors at St. Mary's Hospital,
London, point out that marijuana cigarettes may be smoked less frequently
than nicotine cigarettes, but they're inhaled much more deeply.

The researchers suggest marijuana might be responsible for the deaths of
30,000 people a year in the U.K. "Even if the number of deaths attributable
to cannabis turned out to be a fraction of that figure," they say, "smoking
cannabis would still be a major health hazard."

Yet, the Canadian chattering classes continue to view the marijuana
industry through a tinted lens. That's probably because of colourful
characters like Vancouver's Marc Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture
Magazine. "I've smoked for 22 years and, I mean, I'm as healthy as ever. I
feel fabulous," he told me Friday. Emery says there's no evidence of people
dying from cancer from smoking pot, even after smoking it for 30 years. But
I think he's in blissful denial.

The London doctors point to reports of lung, tongue and other cancers in
marijuana smokers. Smoking pot is also associated with lung disorders,
heart problems and mental disease.

Nowadays, our "progressive" leaders ostracize tobacco smokers and vilify
those involved in the tobacco industry. Yet they remain afraid to condemn
those who drive our children to pot.

"Prevention and cessation are the two principal strategies in the battle
against tobacco," note the London researchers. "At present there is no
battle against cannabis and no clear public-health message."

There is also no battle and no clear health message against hard drugs --
at least in Vancouver, which seems determined to become the North American
centre for their use. Our local authorities turn a blind eye to an illegal
drug-injection site operating right under their noses.

No wonder U.S. narcotics officials are making not-so-veiled threats about
stepping up border drug searches.

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, meanwhile, is quoted as saying that, in the
future, the U.S. will want to "emulate" Vancouver's drug strategy.

However, judging by the damage these kinds of permissive policies have
already done to our downtown, either he's been smoking something

. . . or he's been taking lessons from Comical Ali.