TOUGH POT TALK POLITICALLY WRONG

Politicians who pander to the uninformed don't represent their
constituents or their country well.

The worst example of late is the hysterical outcry for tougher laws
against marijuana grow operators in the wake of the shooting of four
RCMP officers.

Politicians who are demanding the federal government withdraw proposed
legislation to decriminalize marijuana or to introduce harsher jail
terms aren't helping solve a problem. The actions they propose will
only exacerbate clashes between police and drug traffickers.

The RCMP members who were killed in Alberta last week died because a
violent, disturbed man shot them. There are bad people in the world.
Police deal with them all the time. Cop killer James Roszko was one of
them.

Sometimes the bad seeds are drug dealers, sometimes they are sex
offenders, sometimes they are violent alcoholics and sometimes they
are just evil psychopaths. Almost never is marijuana the cause of
their behaviour.

Cocaine, crystal meth and LSD might all contribute to a violent,
irrational act. Marijuana, however, does not have the same impact on
human behaviour. It's rare in a courtroom that a criminal act is
traced back to the use of marijuana. Alcohol is far more likely to be
the cause of aggressive behaviour.

Many people know little about drugs. That's nothing to be ashamed
about until they start trying make legal decisions about drug users.
Then it's important to do some research. Those who are yelling for a
crackdown on marijuana laws come from a time when little was known
about the substance.

Marijuana grow operations are dangerous for police officers because
the weed can make big money for large operators. The criminal element
that grows marijuana protect their product with dangerous booby traps.
The operators also pose fire risks and use huge amounts of power.

Legalize the production of marijuana, which goes hand in hand with
legalizing the use of marijuana, and the criminal element won't be in
charge of the distribution any longer. It will be an industry governed
by proper regulations.

Pot is part of our society today. It's not used only by jobless street
people or teenagers. The middle-class and the upper-class smoke pot in
the same manner in which many have an evening drink.

People from both sides of the marijuana debate have hijacked the
tragedy in Rochfort Bridge to further their cause, but the discussion
has no relevance here. The officers killed were on Roszko's land to
collect stolen property. The marijuana grow operation was an
incidental find.

The marijuana debate is long overdue if politicians are going to admit
that decriminalization is just the first step toward what really needs
to be done. However, it should not take place as a result of a
Canadian tragedy that had everything to do with an evil man and
nothing to do with a marijuana grow-op.