YET ANOTHER MARIJUANA GROW-OP WAS BUSTED LAST WEEK NEAR HUNGRY HILL

Whatever happened to the discussion about legalizing the stuff, anyway?

Rarely have I seen such a monumental waste of resources as the continued
effort to keep this substance illegal.

The most recent raid involved officers from Houston, Smithers and Terrace.
Officers who could have been spending their time doing something constructive.

I'm not going to rehash all the arguments here, it's a simple issue to my
mind. Millions of Canadians have demonstrated for decades that no amount of
legislation is ever going to stop people from growing, buying and smoking pot.

And it's not an isolated phenomenon. People from all walks of life and
every (almost) political stripe like to fire up a doobie every now and then.

And our government even recognized that.

In September 2002, the Canadian Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs released
its final report on cannabis after spending a year talking to experts,
reviewing research and interviewing thousands of ordinary Canadians.

Their recommendation was unequivocal: Canada should legalize -- not
decriminalize -- but actually legalize marijuana.

The committee laid out a comprehensive public policy with the general goals
of reducing the injurious effects of the criminalization of the use and
possession of cannabis; permitting persons over the age of 16 to procure
cannabis at duly licensed distribution centres; and recognizing that
cannabis is a psychoactive substance that may present risks to physical and
mental health and, to this end, to regulate the use and trade of these
substances in order to prevent at-risk use and excessive use.

The members of this committee were not a bunch of hippies prancing around
stoned and naked in the woods. These were senators -- among them conservatives.

That recommendation got watered down into a ridiculous parliamentary bill
that basically -- and barely -- reduced the penalties for possessing and
using small amounts of weed.

That bill died at the table when the 2004 federal election was called and
with it the public discussion went up like a bong hit.

Of course, since then we've been consumed with much more contentious
issues, many of which would benefit from the legalization of pot.

Never mind all the resources that would no longer have to be wasted trying
to control the stuff, but the feds would reap billions in new taxes.

I don't use marijuana myself, nor would I if it were legal, but I am
absolutely convinced that legalizing it the right thing to do.

And I'm not talking about some namby-pamby reduction of penalties.

Marijuana belongs in the same category as tobacco and beer not cocaine and
heroin.

Whatever happened to the pot debate?