GOVERNMENT SHOULD REGULATE, NOT DECRIMINALIZE, POT

Re Where there's smoke, there's disagreement, National Report, Aug.
3.

It never ceases to amaze me that, in spite of the fact that neither
cannabis users nor cannabis itself have ever lived up to the negative
connotations spewed by prohibitionists, politicians and police, zero
tolerance of cannabis and its users continues.

Decriminalization is a poor substitute for the regulation of cannabis,
because it would not address the multitude of problems inherent with
prohibition.

Opponents of legalization, busy promoting pseudo-science, flawed and
contrived studies, phony moralisms and outright fabrications, are
quick to spout off about concerns for youth, cannabis and mixed messages.

However, those concerns are about as short-lived as the examples they
set for youth. One has only to view any newspaper across Canada to
realize this.

The responsible thing for government to do is regulate cannabis in a
manner similar to the way in which it regulates alcohol. That way,
those under the age of majority would have a difficult, if not
impossible, time obtaining cannabis.

There would be very few, if any, lucrative residential marijuana grow
operations and the prohibition-related hydro fraud problem would also
virtually disappear, as would the risk of faulty grow operations and
the potential for harm thereof.

Prominent U.S. researcher John P. Morgan of the City University of New
York Medical School, told a U.S. Senate committee that smoking
marijuana does not seem to cause lung cancer, emphysema or cause birth
anomalies in fetuses.

"We are some 30 to 40 years into this marijuana epidemic and still
have not seen evidence of pulmonary cancer in marijuana smokers,"
Morgan testified.

Morgan scoffed at the theory that marijuana is a gateway leading to
hard drugs. Statistics show that most marijuana smokers never go on to
other drugs, he said. "There is no gateway; there is no credible
gateway theory." Just as increased THC levels simply mean those who
use cannabis would, in fact, have to use less to achieve the desired
effect.

No one in his or her right mind can argue that prohibition is not a
hornet's nest of unmitigated corruption posing as a societal
safeguard; it is a red herring, politically and otherwise.

Until legislators comprehend that and move to end cannabis
prohibition, in spite of prohibitionist sentiment, Canadians will
continue to be systemically discriminated against and Canada will
continue to be diminished in the process.

Wayne Phillips

Hamilton