PIPES ARE 'MEDICAL ASSISTIVE DEVICES'

As a federally licensed medical marijuana user who is also married to
one, I would like to comment on "Drug tools available on local
shelves", June 2.

Cobourg Mayor Peter Delanty said, "...and obviously is a gateway drug
to harder drugs." Marijuana is not a gateway to harder drugs. This
prohibitionist myth has been repeatedly and soundly debunked. He may
as well insist the earth is flat, for all the scientific accuracy it
holds. One need look no further than the 2002 Senate Committee on
Drugs for proof.

If Delanty continues to assert this scientifically proven lie, he
could face a Human Rights Complaint for deliberately
mis-characterizing and stigmatizing marijuana users - many of whom
are licensed to use marijuana for debilitating or life-threatening
conditions. We will not tolerate people speaking about us or our
medicine in this way, and demand he retract the statement.

As for Cobourg Police Chief Paul Sweet's comments, "It just shows the
wrong attitude towards drugs and substance abuse", not all drug use is abuse.

These devices are medical assistive devices. Licensed medical
marijuana users, and the hundreds of thousands of unlicensed users,
need them to deliver their medicine. They need to buy them somewhere,
so banning them could invite even more Human Rights complaints and
even lawsuits.

That said, these devices should be out of the sight of kids and
should not be promoted where kids can see them.

As for what constituents want, the general public is so miserably
misinformed about marijuana and its users - due in large part because
of ridiculous fear-mongering articles like this one - that their
opinions should not really mean much. You wouldn't consult a
five-year-old on foreign policy, so why ask the public about
something they simply do not understand?

Russell Barth

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis Nepean ON