WHAT WERE EDITORS SMOKING?

Re: "B.C. pot buys Afghan rebels guns: top cop," Journal, Jan. 31.

B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman has pitched the fattest lie since
"weapons of mass destruction" with the sole intent of directly linking B.C.
pot growers with death and mayhem abroad. According to Coleman, Afghan
rebels are reportedly using proceeds from the sales of this noxious
substance to finance their arms purchases.

The article was so preposterous that it surely would have been better
placed on the comics page.

Perhaps he was hoping that the members of that particular agricultural
community would surface and defend themselves against his allegations at
their nearest constabulary.

It should be an embarrassment to the editors who chose to foist this
astonishingly bad piece of conjecture on the Canadian public. The claim was
absolutely ludicrous, and demonstrates everything that is wrong with law
enforcement's attitude toward pot. The fact that police resources have been
hurled at this "scourge" for decades with little effect must be frustrating
for them. Creating a spin which turns dope-growers into the evil financiers
of the Afghan rebels who are killing Canadian soldiers should, hopefully,
be their last resort.

If Coleman wanted to create a national boycott of pot, he should have
suggested that marijuana growers deliberately spread mad cow disease, or
that pot use played a significant role in the Enron debacle. As bold lies,
either might have had a more desirable and less embarrassing effect.

David Keeling, Edmonton