HAD YOU BEEN LISTENING

To the editor:

It was kind of you to mention my speech at the Cannabis Day Picnic in the
July 4 Martello Tower. I'm extremely sorry that a couple of your Daily News
agents had to endure my "tired screed" when they "just wanted to hear
another band." But the Cannabis Day picnic is not only about bands.

It's also about changing unjust drug laws that infringe on civil liberties.

I hope The Daily News agents weren't too upset at having to listen to
speeches from people who need marijuana for medical reasons, including the
victim of an inoperable brain tumour who was hauled into court for growing
his own.

As columnist Elaine Carey pointed out in the March 10 Toronto Star, nearly
48,000 people were charged with marijuana offences in 1997 and two-thirds
of those charges were for simple possession. Among those charged, 86 per
cent were younger than 25. So far, 600,000 Canadians have criminal records
for marijuana offences.

Carey interviewed Osgoode Hall Law professor Alan Young who estimates
Canada spends $1 billion a year on drug enforcement with between $600,000
and $700,000 going into investigations and charges related to marijuana
possession.

I used my speech to point out that last year hundreds of prominent people
from all over the world petitioned the United Nations for an end to the war
on drugs.

A letter accompanying their petition read: "We believe the global war on
drugs is now causing more harm than drug abuse itself.

In many parts of the world, drug war politics impede public health efforts
to stem the spread of HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases.

Human rights are violated, environmental assaults perpetrated and prisons
inundated with hundreds of thousands of drug law violators.

Scarce resources better expended on health, education and economic
development are squandered on ever more expensive interdiction efforts."

Finally, I must apologize for offending your agents.

Yes, I criticized The Daily News for not speaking out more forcefully about
the violation of civil rights - not to mention the gross waste of public
funds - that the drug war entails.

The Fraser Institute may consider you the "most radical media outlet on the
subject" but I'd call your coverage pretty complacent.

For example, I notice columnist David Swick's report on the picnic noted
complacently: "It's been a good year, with some sensible discussion on
marijuana in Canada, and little foolish talk about an all-out war on
drugs." No hint here of the thousands of police searches conducted or
charges laid. No hint that, as the Medical Post reported last year, people
dying in pain are casualties of the war on drugs.

No hint that the LeDain Commission called for decriminalization of
marijuana possession and use more than 25 years ago, yet unjust laws remain
on the books.

If you are the "most radical media outlet," it's no wonder that so many
young readers are turning away from a mainstream press that caters to
complacent baby boomers content to smoke pot in the privacy of their
wood-panelled rec rooms, but who have long since stopped calling for the
repeal of unjust laws rooted in ignorance and bigotry.

Now, how's that for a "tired screed"?

Bruce Wark
Fall River