KHAT THE BULL

RE Seeing Red (NOW, December 9-15). What makes me sick is the double
standards of the federal government. While herbal drinks such as Red
Bull, SoBe, Venom, Adrenaline Rush and Whoopass are legal in Canada,
Somali and Ethiopian Canadians are being criminalized for a harmless
stimulant called khat.

Other herbal stimulants, like ma huang and Salvia divinorum, some of
them more potent than khat, are not only legal in Canada but available
in health stores across the nation.

Why is it so? I find out, for example, that drinking a cup of coffee
or 250 ml of Red Bull gives me more buzz than chewing 150 to 200 grams
of khat!!! Is it little wonder, then, that Red Bull is banned in
Denmark while khat is not?

Khat, in fact, has health benefits. The latest research at King's
College in London,England, has revealed that the khat plant boosts the
power of men's sperm. Now will our Justice minister, who happens to be
a human rights lawyer, scrap this unjust law?

Abdiwahid Isse,

Toronto