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