WE ARE HERE; WE ARE HIGH, AND WE ARE NOT LEAVING

Dear Editor:

I was amused by the meandering balderdash offered up by letter writer
A.W. Shier. Mr. Shier says "Give the RCMP a break! They enforce laws;
they don't make them or have much influence in developing them."

Nonsense. They lobby constantly, they exaggerate the value of their
busts, they exaggerate the dangers of both cannabis and cannabis
growing, and they insist - despite any evidence to support the
assertion, and in spite of all evidence to the contrary - that
prohibition is the best way to deal with this issue.

Give them a break? Canadians have had 100 years of this propaganda
and balderdash. Give us a break!

Marijuana prohibition is costing taxpayers about $1 billion annually
in cops, courts, and cages, and all we have to show for it is a
flourishing gangster community and contaminated product.

A regulated marijuana market would save us that $1 billion every
year, and - according to the hippies at the Fraser Institute - would
generate an additional $3 billion in annual tax revenue. Oh yeah -
then there is the $1-1.5 billion increase in tourism that we would
likely see. And yet the police lobby vehemently against legalization.
Give them a break, indeed.

It should also be noted that on December 10th, 1997, Canada's
marijuana laws were declared unconstitutional by Justice Patrick
Sheppard, a decission which was upheld by the Ontario Court of
Appeals, July 31st, 2000 (Catzman, Charron, and Rosenberg).

This decision was not appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and
the government has not re-enacted a Criminal Code statute upon
marijuana. Therefore, marijuana is legal, and has been for about 10
years. Just like the prohibitions on same-sex marriage, medical
marijuana, and abortion, the prohibition died in court, not Parliament.

In 2003, you may recall, the law fell again in Ontario and pot was
legal until October of that year. So really, the prohibition under
which police are busting people is shaky at best, and at worst,
completely invalid.

It is explained in detail at
http://www.greenpassion.org/showthread.php?t=17635 and at
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=polcoa .

Shier says that "...Barth suggests that pot 'actually fights cancer'...".

No, Mr. Shier, science shows that cannabis fights cancer and
stimulates the body's own cancer-resistance systems. Google it.

Pot is not a cancer among our youth. Prohibitionists and their
outrageously counterproductive policies are the thing that is eating
away our entire world like a virulent infection.

I strongly suggest Shier move to one of those "....places on this
planet you would be shot for simple possession", because we are here,
we are high, and we are not leaving.

I promise to continue to loudly promote the herb that has saved the
lives of my sick wife and myself, and the lives of many of my
friends, and I will continue to denounce the immoral and obscene
prohibition that keeps us from it.

Russell Barth
Ottawa