DRUGS: MARIJUANA NOT GOING AWAY

Dear Editor,

Helen Featherston [Grieving mom seeks change, July 28, Langley
Advance] needs to understand something: marijuana, the most medically
beneficial plant known to man, is here to stay. It was here long
before humans, we have used it for more than 5,000 years, and it will
be here long after we are all gone.

Education is the key. Eighty-three years ago, marijuana was made
illegal, based on racist lies and junk science, and the new driving
laws will be implemented the same way, no doubt. There are no official
numbers to support the claim of increased danger, so good luck getting
those laws past The Charter.

Adults - especially police - have lost a lot of credibility when it
comes to drugs, because they lie and exaggerate the so-called
"dangers'of marijuana. They tell kids that marijuana is ten times more
potent than before, and will cause cancer, schizophrenia, impotence,
permanent stupidity, and an addiction to hard drugs.

When kids discover the truth on their own (which is just a Google
search away), they will realize that they have been systematically
lied to by people they once trusted. They will likely conclude that,
if adults lied about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and marijuana,
they must be lying about meth, crack, heroin, ecstasy, booze, weapons,
extreme sports, safe-sex, and safe-driving, too. And who can blame
them?

We live in a hypocritical "drug culture" that advertises booze, fast
cars, fast food, violent movies and video games, and drugs of all
kinds - right on TV. Then we tell kids, "Say no to drugs."

We give kids Ritalin (cocaine with a PG rating), instead of just
reducing their sugar and Game-Boy intake, and then tell them,
"Marijuana is dangerous!"

They see right though this hypocrisy. A ruse by any other
name_

Also, there is already a roadside test, involving measurement of
reflexes, much like a hand-held video game, and it has been used in
Australia.

Next, the only official studies conducted on cannabis and driving took
place in Europe, and they showed conclusively that cannabis users
drive more slowly and more cautiously than non-users. There has never
been a study on cannabis and driving in North America, so police are
pulling numbers right out of the air.

Cannabis can impair some people, but it doesn't impair everyone, or
every time. People can be impaired by a coffee or cigarette or cell
phone in hand, rowdy pets and passengers, booming stereos,
over-the-counter medications, prescription medications, blood-sugar
imbalances, fatigue, inexperience, bad driving habits, old-age, and
just plain old stupidity. To focus on any one thing is arbitrary and
discriminatory, and that is exactly what these new laws would be doing.

It won't matter if the driver is tripling his or her dose of a
prescription medication, but if marijuana shows up in your blood, you
are considered guilty until proven innocent. So much for Canada being
a "just society."

RUSSELL BARTH

Ottawa