LETTER OF THE WEEK

CENSORSHIP: NO EXCUSES

By Robert Biezenski

A recent story reported that two students were suspended from Wawota
Parkland School and threatened with police action for attempting to
tell fellow students marijuana is safer than alcohol or tobacco. Yet
this is a medical fact established by the Canadian Medical
Association, by a recent study commissioned by the Canadian senate
and by a number of international studies. It is also a fact of which
I inform my own students when I cover the war on drugs in the
criminology courses I teach at U of R. Does this mean I, too, am
potentially subject to suspension and police action? Suspending a
student ( or teacher ) for telling the truth is, quite literally, the
ultimate condemnation of any education system.

Censorship always has its justifications, and they are always wrong.

The Wawota administration wants to keep the truth about marijuana
away from students "for their own good". But the truth will win out;
most students will eventually find out that the health risks of
marijuana have been greatly exaggerated by school officials. And when
they do, they will be far more likely to dismiss all official
warnings about drugs, including those much more harmful than marijuana.

In the long run, censorship is always counterproductive, and it
should have no place in our education system. The actions of the
Wawota school administration are a public disgrace, and it should be
formally reprimanded.

Dr. Robert Biezenski

Biezenski teaches in the U of R's sociology department.

Pubdate - Wed, 20 Jun 2007

Source - Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)

Referenced - http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n715/a04.html