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.