POT: NO LONGER A HARMLESS HEAD RUSH?

How many of us would choose to boycott the Nike Corporation because of its
promiscuous use of sweatshops in the developing world? The abuse of women
and children for the sake of creating shoes and other consumer goods that
they can't even dare afford is undoubtedly a disgusting and immoral
business. So smile to yourself when you pass by a Nike shoe and choose
something decidedly more humanity-friendly. You are a good person for
trying to make a difference, and more people could make the same efforts.
You are to be lauded and looked to for your positive leadership.

Four Mounties are dead, four families are in mourning, and every Canadian
institution and individual citizen should have condolences on the tips of
their tongues. Those four honourable officers died on duty trying to make
Canada a safer place for you, for me and for the generations to come. Those
young men died because they were trying to curb the illegal cultivation of
marijuana.

This sad incident brings two distinctly Canadian problems to the fore: laws
on pot, and the marijuana industry.

Marijuana has been shown to be about as harmful as beer or cigarettes,
depending how you look at it. It is certainly not the demon that the U.S.'s
"War on Drugs" has made it out to be. It is a substance, much like beer,
that requires moderation and mindfulness among those who can control
themselves, and which should be avoided by those that can't--such as
sufferers of alcoholism. Canadian law is in the process of being changed to
reflect this, and we should be thankful for that.

The marijuana industry, on the other hand, is not the benevolent creature
that pot professes to be. Certainly, after smoking a happy little joint,
people will tell you that all is peace and groovyness, all kindness and
gentle oblivion. To a large extent, the head rush pot provides is a form of
relaxation in the extreme. But how, then, can one condone the actions of
the "industry" (read: illegal growers of pot) when they kill and destroy
for the sake of profit, if the high is so harmless?

If you won't buy Starbucks because they rape and pillage the livelihoods of
coffee producers around the world, good on you-- organic tastes better
anyways. If you won't buy Nike because they make slaves of the worker, good
on you--the corporation is a veritable demon. If you choose to buy
marijuana from that nameless, faceless dealer who gets it from
who-knows-where, are you any better than the reckless consumer after all?
Therein lies the criminality.

The marijuana industry is not the benevolent creature I once thought it
was. There is nothing "fair trade" or ethical about coercing families of
illegal immigrants shipped in from China to grow plants in their house in
Oakville or Mississauga. There is no good in a business that just destroyed
four families and rocked a small town in northern Alberta. If you would
never dare to wear leather on your person, but you'd be happy to toke a
little doobie, perhaps you should think; it's not cows this industry is
killing, it's people. Men and women who live to serve us are being killed
because we can't wait for the Liberals to change the law.

If you would not dare sip Starbucks, but you're already getting set to
smoke a splif, perhaps you should consider where that pot came from. It's
not organic, its not fair trade and its not an ethical industry. Grow your
own, or failing that, perhaps you should invest a few moments to look up
the word "hypocrite" in a good dictionary.