Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Kamloops This Week Contact: http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271 Author: Jim Harrison Note: Jim Harrison is news director for Radio 'NL CAMPBELL JUST WANTS TO GIVE UP At the risk of making a character judgment, Larry Campbell is a few cards short of a full deck. The former Vancouver, mayor, one-time coroner and now Liberal lackey - -- er, senator -- has been known for his harebrained thinking. The injection centre for downtown eastside junkies in Vancouver is one of his favorites. But Campbell is going too far calling for the legalization of marijuana. Too many resources wasted on too many people, he says, using small quanitities of the drug. Well, if law enforcement can't do the job as effectively as some people would like, the answer, according to this guy, is to throw one's hands up and legalize the crime. Can't get people to buy into the notion that marijuana is a problem? Let's legalize it, tax the hell out of it and at least get some benefit for health care, or some other program that might benefit society, instead of letting organized crime in on all the big money. For those who are weak-willed, perhaps it's a way out. But illicit drugs aren't good for people, regardless of how harmless some might think they are. If marijuana doesn't impair, it can't be much good for the respiratory system, or what few brain cells those who smoke it have left. If it's marijuana today, why not auto theft tomorrow? People like Campbell seem to want to take the path of least resistance - -- no matter how wrong it might be for the common good. Want it cheap? Buy from china Want to endanger your health, or that of your family or pets, get it from China. It's unfair to tar an entire nation with the same brush, but the evidence of late is overwhelming: Pets across North America dying by the thousands because of a Chinese pet food manufacturer who uses melamine. Toys for toddlers using lead and obviously poison paint. Toothpaste counterfeit knockoffs bearing common North American brand names containing dietheylene glycol. And a cold medicine that, according to a story in the Vancouver Sun, has likely killed more than 100 people. They sent tires to the U.S. that are poorly made and come apart at high speeds -- again with fatalties reported. Consumers opt to shop for products from China at their own risk -- and the evidence of late suggests there's plenty of that. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek