ISN'T IT TIME WE GOT AROUND TO LEGALIZING MARIJUANA?

Anyone who attended Miramichi Culture Fest this past weekend will tell
you the folks who came out to see the show had a good time, enjoyed
the music, the food, the beer and, oh yes, the pot.

OK so no vendor was set up selling marijuana but that didn't stop it
from being plentiful and that familiar smell was everywhere. And
what's more, nobody really seemed to care. Same could be said for most
big events and concerts these days.

A few weeks back I was at the Disturbed concert in Moncton and the
story was much the same. You could not only smell the pot but you
could see a cloud of smoke sitting like smog above the crowd.

Again, nobody really seemed to notice.

In fact statistics now show Canada leads the industrialized world in
the consumption of marijuana. Each year in this country 16.8 per cent
of Canadians aged 15-64 consume pot. That's a very big percentage of
the population spread over a very wide age range.

The truth is, most of the people smoking up at the concert on Friday
were well into adulthood, not teenagers or young people in their 20s.

The marijuana trade in this country alone is worth $7.5 billion each
year and on top of that a poll by Angus Reid shows 55 per cent of
Canadians believe marijuana should be legalized.

So why haven't we done it yet? Why is marijuana still illegal? Here is
something a large percentage of the population already uses, it could
represent tens of millions in tax revenue and it would free up police
services to deal with other crimes.

Well, as Mr. Mackey would say on South Park "drugs are bad, m'kay."
I'd agree with that. Drugs are bad and some are worse than others.

Take alcohol for example. It's legal and it's widely consumed, but
it's still a drug and a dangerous one. It's not only psychologically
addictive (like pot can be) but physically addictive (which is not the
case with pot). Alcoholism is a major problem in our society and can
lead to a host of health issues.

Pot isn't without medical issue, mainly in the lungs. Any smoke is bad
- - period.

But then again processed cheese, donuts, french fries and tons of
other things we consume have major health concerns associate with
them. Nobody is moving to make donuts illegal.

How about permanent brain damage? Sorry all signs point to no. Study
after study has shown even heavy marijuana use does not cause brain
damage. At the same time brain damage has been associate with
long-term, heavy alcohol consumption.

So one kind of Bud can be bad for the brain and another kind of bud
isn't.

Well how about the fact pot is a gateway drug? Don't people who use it
just go on to harder drugs like cocaine or heroin? Well unless almost
17 per cent of the Canadian public aged 15-54 is moving on to hard
drugs, it seems unlikely. But in the interest of informing the public
only 0.3 per cent of people who use marijuana become problem drug users.

And finally the crime connection. As we've seen locally pot is a key
product for criminals involved in organized crime and other illegal
activities. This is true. But the same could be said for alcohol
during the prohibition era in the United States. When liquor was
outlawed, organized crime got into the business of meeting people's
demands.

When it was legal to make, sell and consume liquor again, there was no
profit in it for the criminals. If we had a way to legally produce and
sell pot in this country, it would no longer be attractive to
criminals. They'd still be in business, just doing other things, but
almost a quarter of the people in this country wouldn't have to go to
them for their pot.

So why is it still illegal?

Politics. The people who make the rules in this country are pretty
straight laced people. There may be a few you could picture in law
school passing a bong around, but with most it seems unlikely.

On top of that the people opposed to legalization tend to be
politically involved or older. These are people who vote more than
those in the 55 per cent in favor of legalization.

At the end of the day politicians are interested in being re-elected.
If the 55 per cent of Canadians who support legalization want change
they have to put pressure on their elected officials to make a change.

And you also have to vote. You don't vote, you don't get a say. Change
comes on election days.

If politicians believed legalization would win them votes, they'd be
lighting up in the halls of parliament.

In the meantime, smoke 'em if you got 'em!