SMOKE A JOINT AND CHILL

In response to Jonathan Usher's letter in the Sept. 15 Sunday Sun:

Mr. Usher tells us that pot is morally wrong because it encourages the
users to escape the realities of the world, to escape from the benefits and
responsibilities of being a Canadian.

Let me give him a little taste of what's going on every Friday and Saturday
night at parties. Today, some people drink, some people smoke. By the end
of the night, drunk people are the ones who are awash in happy dizziness,
falling down, throwing up in the woods or fighting. Stoned people are
sitting around the fire discussing politics, music, economics, religions,
social and personal problems, spirituality, the meaning of life, world
problems, and they have been for all night.

We talk about the attitudes of people who think they've got business
telling other people what substances they may put in their bodies, which we
think is wrong. We talk about how the "drug war" has artificially inflated
the value of the drugs and left the trade in the hands of bikers, the
Colombian cartels, al-Qaida, etc., which we also think is wrong. We talk
about how better off we'd all be if everyone would just smoke a joint and
chill instead of drinking themselves fat and stupid.

David Ragault, Montreal

(Just like conversation at one of those parties, this argument seems to be
dragging on forever)