POT SMOKESCREEN

The UN single convention on Narcotic Drugs is not a roadblock to medical
marijuana (NOW, January 24-30). Clearly, physicians are now prescribing
substances banned by the single convention: morphine, heroin, dilaudid and
many other substances.

Codeine is a controlled substance under the single convention and is
available without a prescription at any pharmacy in BC.

The only roadblock to prescribing marijuana is the government's insistence
that it is not medicine, even though recent court decisions have affirmed
that it is medicine and insisted that the feds make it available.

Also, there is a provision in the single convention that allows regulation
of any drug, in the fashion of alcohol, if prohibition of such a substance
is unconstitutional, which is exactly the case with medical marijuana.

Since the war on drugs is a failure and half of Canadians no longer want
pot laws, we should withdraw from the convention in the same fashion that
the U.S. has withdrawn from the ABM and Kyoto treaties.

Chuck Beyer, Victoria