POT POLITICS

The first leadership candidate off the block for the NDP is Dana
Larsen. Mr. Larsen is founding editor of Cannabis Culture, founder of
both the Vancouver Dispensary Society and EndProhibition.

The media will have a field day with the marijuana connection and I'm
willing to bet the rest of his platform (and he does have one) will be
ignored.

Marijuana has been big news here lately with the Cariboo being one of
the hottest areas for "outside interests" to be growing the stuff.

I was surprised that Mayor Kerry Cook had the big marijuana bust on
her "best news for 2010" list.

My idea of good news would be not to have any "outside" criminals
operating here in the first place. We have enough of our own.

I'm certainly no booster of mood altering drugs, but we're such
hypocrites.

Study after study shows that booze is the most harmful substance
humans abuse regularly to damage themselves, and tobacco can't be used
"safely" in any form. We're mostly OK with both because they are
socially acceptable.

Marijuana isn't, so it's a bonanza for organized crime.

When the RCMP raided the B.C. legislative buildings seven years ago,
(the beginning of the Basi-Virk saga, remember that?) there were
suggestions of drug involvement.

At the time, RCMP spokesman Staff Sgt. John Ward said organized crime
and its control over the drug trade had reached "epidemic"
proportions, stretching to every corner of the province and it was
"going to get worse before it got better. "

Well, we know the marijuana trade has stretched itself into the
Cariboo. Who knows what else? We seldom hear of other drugs being busted.

Maybe the Cariboo is free of heroin, cocaine, crystal meth,
etc.

Mr. Larsen will be bringing the marijuana issue into the open. It will
be interesting to see the level of his support.

Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former
Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.