'FORTUNE FAVOURS THE ADVENTUROUS'

Dear Editor:

I would like to comment on the editorial published in the May 4
edition of the Pen.

Trying to eliminate drug use is like trying to eliminate
masturbation. Humans have been getting high - one way or another -
since before there was language. Drugs are implicated in the origins
of all the world's major religions. Using drugs is as human as breathing.

We live in a culture that glamorizes sex, fun, danger, thrills,
law-scoffing, risk-taking, rule-breaking, power, wealth-acquisition,
and authority-resisting. We advertise booze, fast cars, fast food,
violent movies and video games, and drugs of all kinds, right on TV!
Then we tell kids that 'drugs are bad'. Does anyone still believe
that kids don't notice this wild hypocrisy? A ruse by any other name...

Rather than spend billions locking up one-third of the population for
choosing one buzz over another, the smart thing to do is to regulate
all drugs like booze so that we can at least reduce some of the harms.

There is also a misconception in our society that suggests that only
drug-abstinence is to be encouraged and admired. Telling kids to
'never' use certain drugs is like telling them to never see a certain
genre of movie, never go to an amusement park or exotic country, or
never do anything at all that may be both risky and fun.

It teaches them to be afraid of new things, instead of curious, and
as history has shown, fortune favours the adventurous. Sensible,
moderate, wellinformed drug use is no more harmful, dangerous, or
immoral than any one of dozens of other activities humans participate
in every day. So if you think 'drugs' have nothing good to offer
society, then throw away every CD you own.

Russell Barth

Federally licenced medical marijuana user Patients Against Ignorance
and Discrimination on Cannabis (PAIDOC) www.paidoc.org Nepean, Ontario