MARIJUANA MOUNTAIN BUILT OUT OF MOLEHILL

Having been deeply involved in the fight to change our marijuana laws,
I feel some discomfort in again writing about the debate.

But the government continues to weave a web of deception.

We find ourselves in a political twilight zone on the marijuana
issue.

I do not believe this government sincerely wishes to change the law
but it is unsure how to placate millions of users and voters.

The best way to forestall change in a democracy is to confuse the
masses.

So for the past two years this government has promoted the concept of
decriminalization by repeatedly introducing legislation that pleases
neither activist nor prohibitionist. To further confuse matters, there
has been a corresponding increase in "reefer madness" misinformation,
much of it coming from the very proponents of the decriminalization
bill.

I have been on many TV programs debating members of parliament and
police officers who spin the tired mythology of addiction, mental
illness, failing health and the new and improved potent pot. These
spinners may rely upon a touching anecdote knowing that it is bad
television if I try to counter these misleading stories with a dull
recitation of data and the nuances of statistical methodology. The
government is able to maintain a low level of fear by relying upon a
few true stories and the occasional fictional narrative. In the
process, it obscures the fact that marijuana has been used by hundreds
of millions of people over thousands of years with no discernable
impact on morbidity, mortality or moral decay.

The debate over marijuana law reform exposes the treachery of state
control of information. Within a democracy, one of the greatest
threats to freedom is the control of information. Voting, making
decisions, supporting initiatives only make sense if the choice is
grounded in accurate and complete information. The invasion of Iraq
seemed to have some modest justification when powerful people in
control of information led us to believe Saddam had his finger on the
chemical bomb button.

Now we know Saddam's fingers posed no risk but it is hard for
political leaders to admit defeat and disgrace.

Governments can make bad decisions with the stroke of a pen but
undoing the mistake is like moving a mountain.

When pot use was deemed criminal in 1923, there was no rationale for
the prohibition other than official misinformation. Eighty-one years
later, we now know that millions of Canadians smoke pot. We also know
the moderate use of marijuana poses little risk to the user. Clearly,
with millions of Canadians taking a puff here or there, some doing so
for many decades, we would expect to find epidemiological evidence
confirming the health risks detected in rats or some hard evidence
that pot smokers are contributing significantly to carnage on the roads.

Scientists keep looking but the evidence is not forthcoming. This is
why most Canadians do not support the criminalization of pot use and
why royal commission after royal commission has recommended reform of
the law.

Yet I still see on the front page of some papers glossy photos of cops
decked out in chemical warfare space-suits carrying bushy pot plants
out of grow-ops. It turns out the weapons of mass destruction were not
in Baghdad but were scattered all over the streets of Greater Toronto.
This melodramatic photo-op thoroughly confuses the issue.

People who have neither the time nor the inclination to research the
true state of affairs would undoubtedly believe that marijuana must be
highly toxic and dangerous if state officials have to don protective
gear to uproot a plant.

The media can become a pawn in a government's campaign of
misinformation. The grow-op hysteria has become good copy - almost
biblical - with the plagues of fire, fungus and mould.

Of course, every moral panic is built on one or two real
tragedies.

Homes have burnt down due to faulty wiring.

Homes have been overrun by mould.

The occasional tragedy does not constitute an epidemic, and one would
expect an epidemic when the looming presence of criminal law forces
growers into an unregulated black market where there is little
incentive to comply with safety code standards.

Growing marijuana for personal use is safe if done
correctly.

Similarly, smoking marijuana is safe for the majority of
people.

Of course, some people have had bad experiences or suffered personal
hardship from smoking pot. The plant is not everyone's cup of tea, but
neither is the vine. The problem is that state officials will build a
mountain out of a molehill to suit their devious purposes.

Small problems become magnified into large-scale, social problems to
convince an unknowing public that an expansion in state power is
needed to fight the growing menace.

Every expansion in state power results in a corresponding diminution
of individual rights.

That's the yin-yang of politics.

In a dictatorship, people are forced to give up rights at
gunpoint.

In a democracy, people are fooled into giving up rights by the
creation of unfounded moral panics.

Whether the panic is pit bulls, satanic cults or Quebec separatists,
state officials are adept at manipulating and controlling information.
Even if you believe smoking marijuana is a monumental waste of time,
you should be alarmed whenever a government deliberately distorts the
truth.

What else might it be lying about?