LEGALIZE POT: EVERYONE'S SMOKIN' AND GROWIN' IT ALREADY

Alright, I've smoked marijuana, but like Bill Clinton, I didn't
inhale. I couldn't. I've never smoked cigarettes. My mechanics are
lousy (cough, cough, cough).

So when I first tried pot back in the early 70's, I was one of those
who threw up their hands and said, "what's the big deal?" -after I
stopped coughing.

I got high twice: once while driving a car load of pot heads from the
Cariboo down to Vancouver -the car was so full of smoke I could hardly
see the road -and again after ingesting a cookie containing hashish. I
started seeing things and had to lie down. It scared the crap out of
me. From then on it was strictly booze for this party animal.

The marijuana culture has certainly changed since those heady days of
flared pants and peace symbol-belt buckles, head bands and the $5 bag.
The pot is a lot more potent and more plentiful and our attitudes
towards its use have changed. While it's not rare to find someone who
hasn't taken a joint in hand at a rock concert or a party or a
barbeque or at work (hey man, when's lunch?), it is highly unusual to
find anyone who will deny knowing someone who has tried pot (did that
make sense? I've gotta stop smoking while I write this.).

It's pervasive. It's production boggles the mind like a hash cookie
- -80,000 kilograms in B.C .in 2003. That's $2 billion wholesale, almost
$8 billion retail -enough to buy the Canucks and the Lions and a new
Hummer.

It's our biggest cash crop and nationally equal to the size of the
cattle industry, according to an article in the a Vancouver daily..
And as illegal as insider trading, Martha.

And there's the buzz: it's the increasingly futile war against drugs,
the effort to enforce the law - and not drug use -that has caused most
of the social, political, legal and moral problems associated with
pot.

Police are increasingly unable or unwilling to enforce the pot laws at
the risk of neglecting other, more serious issues, Fewer offenders are
being taken to court, fewer are ending up in prison. The price of
getting caught is just an operating cost for most pot growers, many of
whom are members of organized crime. In the '60s and '70s when I was
trying to cough my way into the subculture most of yer dope was grown
by what they call mom and pop operations, garden and greenhouse plots,
small stuff to make enough money to pay the rent and buy the groceries.

Ottawa's efforts to decriminalize possession for small amounts only
hurts the little guy and does nothing to deter organized crime who
will continue to answer the demand for high quality weed undeterred by
the law.

The solution? Legalization. It would remove to a certain extent the
presence of organized crime and government would be able to control
the quality of pot and introduce programs aimed at responsible use and
prevention, much like they do with booze and tobacco -our two most
favoured drugs.

Rather than buying weed of unknown origins from some aging hippie or a
Harley pilot in the washroom of the local strip joint, you could just
go into the mall and buy it from a government approved outlet complete
with Pot Stewards to advise you on strength, age etc: "Oh have you
tried the new Bud Light?"

All very civil and above board and bound to create another
bureaucratic nightmare but it will sure free up lots of cops and money
to battle other forms of crime. The way it is now some jurisdictions
are trying to enlist the aid of garbage collectors, meter readers and
letter carriers (!) in their fight against marijuana grow-ops. It's
enough I have to deal with the dogs and the weather and the mail
thieves, now they want me to bust pot growers?

Sure it ain't good for you, it has lots of carcinogens and often turns
you into a babbling ravenous lunatic. But hell, so does the booze. We
have to take some responsibility for our own choices. Some will, some
won't.

The abusers can face the consequences, the casual user can get out the
beads and the tie dye shirt, put on the Moody Blues or the Jefferson
Starship and take a trip down memory lane.

And the best part - it'll really piss off the Americans.