Pubdate: Thu, 10 Mar 2005
Source: Dalhousie Gazette, The (CN NS Edu)
Copyright: 2005 The Dalhousie Gazette
Contact:  http://www.dalgazette.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2866
Author: Jimmy Kapches
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

POT: NO LONGER A HARMLESS HEAD RUSH?

How many of us would choose to boycott the Nike Corporation because of its 
promiscuous use of sweatshops in the developing world? The abuse of women 
and children for the sake of creating shoes and other consumer goods that 
they can't even dare afford is undoubtedly a disgusting and immoral 
business. So smile to yourself when you pass by a Nike shoe and choose 
something decidedly more humanity-friendly. You are a good person for 
trying to make a difference, and more people could make the same efforts. 
You are to be lauded and looked to for your positive leadership.

Four Mounties are dead, four families are in mourning, and every Canadian 
institution and individual citizen should have condolences on the tips of 
their tongues. Those four honourable officers died on duty trying to make 
Canada a safer place for you, for me and for the generations to come. Those 
young men died because they were trying to curb the illegal cultivation of 
marijuana.

This sad incident brings two distinctly Canadian problems to the fore: laws 
on pot, and the marijuana industry.

Marijuana has been shown to be about as harmful as beer or cigarettes, 
depending how you look at it. It is certainly not the demon that the U.S.'s 
"War on Drugs" has made it out to be. It is a substance, much like beer, 
that requires moderation and mindfulness among those who can control 
themselves, and which should be avoided by those that can't--such as 
sufferers of alcoholism. Canadian law is in the process of being changed to 
reflect this, and we should be thankful for that.

The marijuana industry, on the other hand, is not the benevolent creature 
that pot professes to be. Certainly, after smoking a happy little joint, 
people will tell you that all is peace and groovyness, all kindness and 
gentle oblivion. To a large extent, the head rush pot provides is a form of 
relaxation in the extreme. But how, then, can one condone the actions of 
the "industry" (read: illegal growers of pot) when they kill and destroy 
for the sake of profit, if the high is so harmless?

If you won't buy Starbucks because they rape and pillage the livelihoods of 
coffee producers around the world, good on you-- organic tastes better 
anyways. If you won't buy Nike because they make slaves of the worker, good 
on you--the corporation is a veritable demon. If you choose to buy 
marijuana from that nameless, faceless dealer who gets it from 
who-knows-where, are you any better than the reckless consumer after all? 
Therein lies the criminality.

The marijuana industry is not the benevolent creature I once thought it 
was. There is nothing "fair trade" or ethical about coercing families of 
illegal immigrants shipped in from China to grow plants in their house in 
Oakville or Mississauga. There is no good in a business that just destroyed 
four families and rocked a small town in northern Alberta. If you would 
never dare to wear leather on your person, but you'd be happy to toke a 
little doobie, perhaps you should think; it's not cows this industry is 
killing, it's people. Men and women who live to serve us are being killed 
because we can't wait for the Liberals to change the law.

If you would not dare sip Starbucks, but you're already getting set to 
smoke a splif, perhaps you should consider where that pot came from. It's 
not organic, its not fair trade and its not an ethical industry. Grow your 
own, or failing that, perhaps you should invest a few moments to look up 
the word "hypocrite" in a good dictionary.
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MAP posted-by: Beth