YEOMAN'S 'ERRONEOUS HYSTERIA' DOESN'T HELP MARIJUANA DEBATE

Tom Yeoman has not done his homework. I had hoped that his
reefer-madness myths had been put to rest in 1997 when Ontario
Justice John McCart ruled, "Consumption of marijuana is relatively
harmless compared to the so-called hard drugs including tobacco and
alcohol. There exists no hard evidence demonstrating any
irreversible organic or mental damage from the consumption of
marijuana. Cannabis is not an addictive substance. There have been
no recorded deaths from the consumption of marijuana. There is no
evidence that marijuana causes amotivational syndrome."

Besides, Yeoman's erroneous hysteria is irrelevant to his defence of
criminalizing non-violent cannabis users. Even if cannabis were as
dangerous as tobacco, ( where are the bodies? ), it would make even
less sense to abdicate cannabis distribution, ( and profits ), to the
unregulated black market. Contrary to popular belief, prohibition is
at the bottom; not the top of the regulatory scale. We have more
control over corn flakes than we do the so-called controlled drugs
and substances.

For the sake of discussion, let us overlook our over-burdened courts,
prisons and police forces and temporarily accept that Tom Yeoman
knows something that Justice McCart, The Lancet, the New England
Journal of Medicine and every major study on the subject inexplicably
missed. Which of the following dangerous substance distribution
systems makes the most sense?

The Tom Yeoman System: We remove all taxes and tariffs from the
substance. We remove all forms of regulation, quality control and
labelling. We make the substance worth its weight in gold. We hire
anyone of any age from any walk of life, criminal background and
level of education to distribute the substance. We sell the
substance 24 hours a day to anyone of any age anywhere, including
school grounds. We pay our distributors on commission to encourage
aggressive market expansion. We stock our distributors with more
addictive products in case they temporarily run out of our
substance. We arm our distributors so they can defend their
extremely valuable products and protect their market share.

The Le Dain Commission System: We tax the substance, directing the
revenues proportional to the popularity of the substance, toward
education and research toward making the substance safer. We
regulate quality, labelling and advertising. We hire licensed,
trained, background checked, salary paid distributors. We prohibit
sales to minors.

Matthew M. Elrod

Victoria