JUST SAY NO, CANADA

Re: War on drugs going to pot, July 13

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be legal.

Writing under the pen name Janey Canuck in the early 1900s, an
Edmonton woman by the name of Emily Murphy first warned Canadians
about the dreaded reefer and its association with dark-skinned minorities.

The sensationalist yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst led to
marijuana's criminalization in the United States. At the time,
marijuana use in North America was limited to Mexican immigrants and
black jazz musicians. Whites did not even begin to smoke marijuana
until after it was prohibited.

Almost one hundred years later, Canada leads the industrialized world
in cannabis consumption. Prohibition has been counterproductive at
best.

What started as a racist reaction to Mexican immigration has since
morphed into an intergenerational culture war, with Canada's southern
neighbor leading the global charge. The war on some drugs has given
the (former) Land of the Free the highest incarceration rate in the
world.

There is a good reason millions of people prefer marijuana to
martinis. Cannabis is easily the least harmful recreational drug
available, legal or otherwise. Unlike alcohol, the plant has never
been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive
properties of tobacco.

Medical science tells us that jail cells are inappropriate as health
interventions. History shows they are ineffective as deterrents. It's
time for Canada to "Just Say No" to the American Inquisition.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.