LET'S JUST SAY NO TO THE DRUG WAR

Most Of The Dangers Of Marijuana Lie In The Absurd Attempts To Suppress It

Good morning. This is your brain, and I want to talk to all of you, but
especially parents, about the dangers of marijuana.

I don't mean smoking it; that's pretty much harmless although you shouldn't
then operate machinery or motor vehicles. I mean the serious negative
effects the drug war can have on your IQ and even your morals.

Consider Wednesday's warning by U.S. drug czar Asa Hutchinson that if
Canada and Britain "start shifting policies with regards to marijuana it
simply increases the rumblings in this country that we ought to re-examine
our policy. It is a distraction from a firm policy on drug use."

So basically, if we question the policy we might realize it's a bad idea
and abandon it and that mustn't be allowed to happen. How many bong hits
would it take before you'd say something (a) that silly and (b) that
contrary to the principle of rational inquiry in a free society?

For the record, John Barleycorn makes a good friend but a terrible master
and you should never take white powder for fun.

But this isn't some summer camp where the counsellors go "Give me a T and
an O and a K and an E; whaddaya get?" and we all have to shout "Bust-ed!"
with forced cheerfulness (except the smart-aleck in the back who yells
"Stoned!").

This is a free society where adults make their own choices. Until we start
down the slippery slope of Prohibition.

So I want to emphasize that there's no such thing as a harmless level of
drug-war use.

Just a bit of it made Bill Clinton's secretary of health and human
services, Donna Shalala, say, "There is no such thing as a soft drug and
there is no such thing as a drug that is illegal that is not dangerous" and
that parents had to tell their kids marijuana could impair learning and memory.

Well, the drug war can make you incapable of learning that every study has
found marijuana to be mostly harmless, or remembering why and how
Prohibition failed.

Worse, it can cause absurd, persistent delusions. Once-rational adults,
under its influence, become persuaded that Dionne Warwick is a menace to
society at 61. Along with former NBA stars Robert Parrish and Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, and Bob Denver of Gilligan's Island.

One guy who resisted the demon weed war is Justice Minister Martin Cauchon,
who just suggested decriminalizing small amounts of pot.

A senior police officer promptly asked how you'd catch dealers without the
threat of a criminal record to get users to rat on suppliers. A more lucid
question would be why you'd want to catch dealers, if the stuff is harmless.

The police admit it's the largest cash crop in British Columbia and
Ontario. So either you accept that normal people smoke it or you are
compelled to regard Canada as a nation of axe murderers not awash in blood
only because we're too stoned to remember where we put our axes.

Surely no one since Emily "Famous Five" Murphy wrote The Black Candle
seriously contends that marijuana leads to violence? People, do not
underestimate the debilitating effects of the drug war on the human brain.

Three years ago it caused Republican Mark Souder of Indiana to ask some
real live teenagers in a Congressional hearing whether marijuana might
account for some school violence. Those not burdened by undue sobriety know
it's "Drunk and disorderly" but "Stoned and sauntering."

The war on drugs can even render mature, educated adults incapable of
simple tasks hammered teens in a basement handle without difficulty. Like
growing good pot, here or in the U.S.

The U.S. government tried to fend off criticism from medical researchers by
saying its stuff "does not contain sticks and seeds," but the National
Institute on Drug Abuse that produced the G-grass had to concede it was
"kind of harsh."

Others less constrained by the niceties of government called it
"Mississippi ditch weed."

Alarmist? I assure you I have only begun to outline the damage the drug war
can do to your powers of reason.

It can make you think it's worth diverting scarce resources from the war on
terror; letting violent criminals out of jail to make room for people who
sell pot to willing customers; locking up impressionable kids with
hardened, sexually aggressive felons.

This poison even turns lovers of liberty into Communists. A few puffs and
Americans who once idolized George Washington suddenly think it's good to
have a czar.

It made U.S. Customs Commissioner William von Raab request the right to
shoot down the presumption of innocence, along with any unidentified plane
entering U.S. airspace. Lest crazed druggies slay innocents, you understand.

If something peddled in plastic bags in alleys caused this much stupidity
and abandonment of principle, the nation would recoil in horror. But it's a
tragedy that doesn't have to happen if we all do our part.

Just say no to the drug war.