POT COMICS HOLDING BACK THE LEGALIZATION CAUSE

Society is so hypocritical, and the media doubly so ["Smoke from a new
fire", November 27-December 4]. Most days, the papers have scathing,
hyped-up reports of "grow ops" and the supposed psychosis-inducing
dangers of the newfangled, space-age super pot they grow in them. We
see cops in hazmat suits and read quotes from police and government
officials about how pot users are the scourge of society. Then two
aging hacks come to town to rehash some outdated [comedy] routines
that only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes about pot users, and
a winking media and a complacent public just giggle.

What about the fact that the hugely unpopular, incredibly expensive,
and wildly dysfunctional prohibition on pot is subsidizing everything
from organized crime to human trafficking and international terrorism?
What about the fact that federally licensed medical marijuana users
like me are having our human rights violated because we are forbidden
by provincial laws from even using our medication in public? Tommy
Chong is the yardstick by which our culture measures pot users, and we
have him to thank, in large part, for the pot-legalization movement
being held back for the past 40 years.

Russell Barth

Nepean, Ontario