DRUG CRUSADERS LISTEN UP

To the Editor

I am disgusted by the daily onslaught of letters suggesting how
cannabis lovers are being maltreated, and should be given " the
dignity they deserve." (Cantwell, NDN August , 2006).

Let's evaluate the deservedness of dignity.

Where is the dignity in children afraid to go home because their
parents are drug addicts who spend food and housing money on drugs?
Where is the dignity in a 13 year old being expelled from school
because he couldn't make it through the day without leaving for a
bathroom break to smoke up? Where is the dignity in a 14-year-old
dropping out of school because her only motivation for getting up in
the morning is the opportunity to smoke? Where is the dignity in a
15-year-old coming to his 8:30 a.m. class with glassy red eyes
indicating he is already high? Where is the dignity in a 16-year old
mother leaving her baby alone, yet again, because she needs to get
high? Where is the dignity in a Grade 12 student thinking she can't
make it through her exam without smoking weed? Where is the dignity
in the 18-year old parents hot-boxing their room while their infant
sleeps beside them? Where is the dignity in a 14-year old being
dragged naked behind a car and left for dead after a drug deal goes
bad? Where is the dignity in a 15-year-old entering a three-month
detox program because he made the move from "soft" gateway drugs to
those with greater power to destroy?

I teach in the Northwest Territories and have learned from a
drug-dealing student that much of our town's drugs originate in
Nelson. It makes me ashamed to call Nelson my hometown.

Nelson has so many incredible offerings to the world; it is
unfortunate that the voice of a minority has touted it as a gathering
place for drug-lovers. In fact, last fall two of my students
returned from summer break telling their classmates how great the
Nelson area is because they can get high for five days at Shambhala.
They tell their fellow students that drugs are allowed in B.C.. This
summer four more students made the trek to Shambhala so they, too,
can get high where they think it's allowed.

For some adults,smoking marijuana is a casual "recreational" pass
time. Who am I to tell you what is right or wrong? That is the
responsibility of the law.

I will tell you I am saddened by the impact of marijuana on the young
adults in my school. Watch their lives waste away after being
arrested for theft to earn drug money. Witness their change as they
graduate to ecstasy, crystal-meth or cocaine. Watch them begin to
lose their souls and their future, and then ask yourself about dignity.

Nicole Lorusso

Nelson, B.C.