CAMPBELL JUST WANTS TO GIVE UP

At the risk of making a character judgment, Larry Campbell is a few
cards short of a full deck.

The former Vancouver, mayor, one-time coroner and now Liberal lackey
- -- er, senator -- has been known for his harebrained thinking.

The injection centre for downtown eastside junkies in Vancouver is one
of his favorites. But Campbell is going too far calling for the
legalization of marijuana.

Too many resources wasted on too many people, he says, using small
quanitities of the drug.

Well, if law enforcement can't do the job as effectively as some
people would like, the answer, according to this guy, is to throw
one's hands up and legalize the crime.

Can't get people to buy into the notion that marijuana is a problem?
Let's legalize it, tax the hell out of it and at least get some
benefit for health care, or some other program that might benefit
society, instead of letting organized crime in on all the big money.

For those who are weak-willed, perhaps it's a way out. But illicit
drugs aren't good for people, regardless of how harmless some might
think they are.

If marijuana doesn't impair, it can't be much good for the respiratory
system, or what few brain cells those who smoke it have left.

If it's marijuana today, why not auto theft tomorrow?

People like Campbell seem to want to take the path of least resistance
- -- no matter how wrong it might be for the common good.

Want it cheap? Buy from china

Want to endanger your health, or that of your family or pets, get it
from China.

It's unfair to tar an entire nation with the same brush, but the
evidence of late is overwhelming:

Pets across North America dying by the thousands because of a Chinese
pet food manufacturer who uses melamine.

Toys for toddlers using lead and obviously poison paint. Toothpaste
counterfeit knockoffs bearing common North American brand names
containing dietheylene glycol.

And a cold medicine that, according to a story in the Vancouver Sun,
has likely killed more than 100 people.

They sent tires to the U.S. that are poorly made and come apart at
high speeds -- again with fatalties reported.

Consumers opt to shop for products from China at their own risk -- and
the evidence of late suggests there's plenty of that.