YOUTH KNOW WHEN THEY'RE 'BEING CONNED'

Re: Troubled by youth's view of marijuana (letter to the editor, Feb. 3).

I applaud anyone's efforts to keep kids away from drugs, but the
reason kids think pot is cool has more to do with the lies
perpetuated by the anti-pot establishment than the efforts of
legalization advocates. Kids know when they are being conned.

Adults have lost all credibility when it comes to all drugs, because
we have lied and exaggerated the so-called "dangers" of marijuana. We
tell kids that marijuana will cause cancer, schizophrenia, impotence,
permanent stupidity and an addiction to hard drugs. When kids find
the truth on their own (which is just a Google search away), they
will realize they have been systematically lied to.

They will think; "Adults lied about Santa Claus, the Easter bunny and
marijuana, so they must be lying about meth, crack, booze, safe-sex
and safe-driving, too." And who can blame them?

We advertise booze, fast cars, fast food, violent movies and video
games and drugs of all kinds on TV, then tell kids "say no to drugs."
We give kids Ritalin, instead of reducing their sugar and Game-Boy
intake, and then tell kids "pot is dangerous!" They see right though
this hypocrisy. A ruse by any other name...

Taking the marijuana business out of the hands of kids and criminals
and putting it into the hands of responsible adults is socially
conservative. Generating tax revenue from that industry is fiscally
conservative, and using that money to teach kids why they should
avoid drugs is morally conservative.

By not legalizing and regulating marijuana production and sales, we
subsidize criminals, make pot easier for kids to access than either
tobacco or alcohol, waste valuable police resources and billions of
dollars annually, ruin lives for no good reason, deprive ourselves of
a source of valuable medicine and miss out on $3 billion in annual tax revenue.

For those keen on educating kids about drugs without all the
fear-mongering, hyperbole, and hypocrisy of the standard "drug
education" programs, I recommend having a look at the Educators For
Sensible Drug Policy website at www.efsdp.org

I am a federal medical marijuana licence holder.

Russell Barth

Ottawa