INFORMED DRUG USE NOT DANGEROUS

Re: Parents talk drugs

Dear Editor:

Here are some facts parents never consider:

1. Junk food will kill many times more Canadians this year than all
illegal drugs combined.

2. In 5,000 years of recorded history, marijuana has yet to kill a
single person.

3. The cellphone your kid uses every day is many times more likely to
cause cancer than the pot he buys over the cellphone

4. Recent science out of Germany shows how cannabinoids stimulate the
body's production of TIMP-1, which helps healthy cells resist cancer
invasion. (www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20071226/pot-slows-cancer-in-test-tube)

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 ...

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,
well-informed drug use is no more harmful, dangerous, or immoral than
any one of dozens of other activities humans participate in every
day. And if you think "drugs" have nothing good to offer society,
then throw away every CD you own.

For those keen on teaching kids about drugs without all the
hyperbole, spin, sloganeering, and bald-faced lies of the standard
"education" programs, I recommend the Canadian Students For Sensible
Drug Policy website at (http://www.cssdp.org), the Educators For
Sensible Drug Policy website at (http://www.efsdp.org), or the Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition website at (http://www.leap.cc).

Russell Barth, Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User Drug Reform
Analyst and Consultant Educators for Sensible Drug Policy