TIME TO LOOK AT LEGALIZING POT

Pot and I are familiar acquaintances but we've never been formally introduced.

That's right.

Since Grade 8, I've known of friends and family who regularly indulge
in the pleasures of cannabis but alas, I have abstained. I can name
six people right off the top of my head that I could go to and get
immediately hooked up with a bag of botanical but I guarantee, I'm on
no one's source list.

I'm not sure why I never bothered to at least give it a go. It's sure
not from a lack of opportunities. The smell of its smoke is far more
palatable to me than cigarette smoke (haven't tried that either but I
lived with a two-pack-a-day dad into my teens so I've smoked enough,
thanks). It's not a control thing, either, because I love wine, beer,
Scotch and all of the whiskey family, vodka, gin, tequila and
everything else in your liquor cabinet. I don't love them excessively
but if you're offering, I'm holding my glass out.

By the time I got around to wanting to try pot, I was in my
mid-twenties and I somehow felt I had missed the boat. Peer pressure
had reversed itself and now I didn't want to be the guy everybody was
laughing at for trying for his first puff 10 years after everyone else.

The fact I haven't made out with Mary Jane doesn't mean I am against
its use. On the contrary, I'm with all of those folks who say it's
time to legalize it to the same extent as alcohol.

It would free up our courts and our police forces to focus more on
catching and incarcerating real bad guys. It would take away a major
source of revenue for organized crime (also known as real bad guys).
It would take away a major source of revenue for multinational
pharmaceuticals, although the smart ones would quickly put aside
their high-minded morality and start selling it in various forms for
its medicinal and pain-killing properties.

Cotton growers would quickly find out that hemp would look good on
their fields, since it not only makes great fibre for clothing, it
works as a fine oil in soaps and makeup. And forest companies would
quickly realize that hemp makes cheaper, stronger and longer-lasting
paper than trees, without requiring major refits of their current
pulp mills. Lab tests have shown its amazing potential as a source of
biomass fuel. The seed cake is high in protein, which means it could
feed farm animals or people just fine. And as everyone knows, it's a
hardy little plant that can grow just about anywhere.

Pot's time is coming again. Before industrialization allowed cotton
and trees to replace it, the majority of the world's paper and
clothing was made with hemp. The days ignoring the value of cannabis,
rather than just for its hallucinogenic properties, are drawing to a
close. In a capitalist economy, where every company seeks the next
great product, an old-school plant sits waiting to be exploited once again.

Now if only government would get out of the way.