READERS CRY 'REEFER MADNESS' (1 of 3)

Re `Governments Caught Coming And Going On Marijuana Issues', Calgary
Herald Oct.9.

Hypocritical critics of medical marijuana cannot name one valid reason to
outlaw cannabis.

Marijuana prohibition is based on the most absurd fables, fictions and
falsehoods ever used to enact a law. Furthermore, every piece of
propaganda used to justify marijuana prohibition has been completely
debunked by science, medicine and sociology. The `gateway' theory was
thoroughly debunked by the recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report with
this resounding rebuttal:

`Whereas the stepping stone hypothesis presumes a predominantly
physiological component to drug progression, the gateway theory is a social
theory. The latter does not suggest that the pharmacological qualities of
marijuana make it a risk factor for progression to other drug use. Instead
it is the legal status of marijuana that makes it a gateway drug,'

Consider for a moment `...it is the legal status of marijuana that makes it
a gateway drug.' What implications can be teased from that sentence?

The main rationale for keeping marijuana illegal is not that it is so
dangerous, but that it can serve as a gateway to other, more genuinely
dangerous drugs. But insofar as there is evidence that marijuana use
sometimes leads to the use of harder drugs the reason is that marijuana
possession and use are illegal. A twisted bit of logic, eh?

Take it another step. Those who insist on keeping the plant illegal bear a
serious degree of moral responsibility for young marijuana users who do go
on to use cocaine, heroin, PCP or other genuinely dangerous or addictive
drugs.

If Bloc Quebecois MP Yvan Loubier and other drug warriors were really
seriously troubled by the possibility that use of marijuana might lead
innocent or psychologically troubled people to harder drugs with much more
severe physiological dangers, they would move as quickly as possible to
legalize marijuana. The fact that they don't makes their plaintive pleas of
compassionate concern for those victimized by addiction and drug-induced
disorders ring hollow.

There is no mayhem, no madness and no homicides as was claimed when these
fraudulent laws were passed. There is no `gateway'. And there is no real
reason to ban marijuana, but the prohibitionists insist on continuing their
Reefer Madness drug policies anyway. Why?

Redford Givens
San Francisco

Givens is a medical marijuana user.