MARIJUANA CANDIDATE BRINGS HOME CANNABIS

Re: Marijuana candidate brings home cannabis cafe debate, (Pique Sept.
17, 2004)

Self-proclaimed marijuana "expert" RCMP Staff Sergeant Norm McPhail
offers the usual official spin to defend marijuana prohibition:
marijuana might or could be as harmful as alcohol, therefore marijuana
should remain prohibited. This kind of drunken logic is what the
Supreme Court of Canada presents, as legal scholarship, to defend
marijuana laws against Charter of Rights challenges.

Obviously, marijuana laws do not protect the public's order, health,
or safety, but rather placate the Americans' zeal for their failed
drug war strategies. This continued subordination of Canadian rights
and freedoms in the interest of foreign relations is unconstitutional
and demands the invocation of the Not-withstanding Clause contained in
our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The only real solution though, is
total legalization, but I won't hold my toke waiting for it to happen.

Peter Yunge-Bateman,

North Vancouver