MURPHY WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING POT ILLEGAL

Re: Cookstown was birthplace of one of Canada's "Famous Five" (Oct. 6
Alliston Herald):

The racist, puritan crackpot Emily Murphy is responsible for Canada's
original 1923 prohibition on marijuana, and the mess that has followed.

Her diatribe in The Black Candle aimed the prohibition at dark-skinned
people, who she wanted to see removed or eradicated from the
continent. It was what prompted parliament to add marijuana to the
Opium Tax Act.

Now, despite the LeDain Commission's report of the early 1970s and the
2002 Senate Committee Report on Drugs, one government after another
has treated marijuana like a serious "danger to society," when in
fact, it is only a danger to the pharmaceutical industry.

If we wanted to put this woman's face on paper, it shouldn't be our
money, it should be on our toilet paper.

Russell Barth,

Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis (PAIDC)

Nepean, Ont.