Pubdate: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB) Copyright: 2009 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.winnipegsun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503 Author: Paul Turenne HIDING 'HEAD SHOP' POINTLESS The St. James-Assiniboia school board thinks locating a head shop close to a St. James Collegiate will encourage more high school students to smoke pot. Truth be told, the board might be right, but putting any effort into restricting where such shops can set up is a waste of time. High school students are going to smoke pot whether they have to go to the nearby head shop to buy pipes and bongs, or whether they have to go to the head shop across town. Try as you might, you are not going to get teenagers to stop smoking pot. That having been said, the school board might be right that more kids will try marijuana if a head shop is more visible and accessible to them. However, it's hard to imagine that being the tipping point for more than a handful of teens, which would be a drop in the bucket considering how many students try pot these days. Marijuana culture is everywhere. It's in the music teens listen to, it's in movies and TV shows, and it's all over the Internet they surf every day. Moving a head shop a couple of hundred metres will not change that. Plus, it's not as though smoking implements are hard to come by. All anyone has to do is head out and buy rolling papers at Safeway or 7-Eleven, and there are plenty of those located close to schools. Winnipeg has no shortage of beer vendors and government liquor stores located within a quick walk from schools, and there is a legitimate argument to be made that alcohol is much more damaging to people and to society than marijuana. The difference, of course, is that marijuana is illegal, and alcohol is not. Say what you want about marijuana, but the fact remains that it is against the law to smoke it. Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz says he does not condone any business -- legal or not -- that encourages people to break the law. He suggests anyone who has an issue with head shops to present it formally when the city reviews its zoning laws in the coming months. That's reasonable advice and it's positive democracy in action. But for anyone who takes the mayor up on his suggestion, please bear this in mind: Trying to stop teenagers from smoking pot is like standing by the ocean and asking the tide not to come in. Acceptance of marijuana is growing and lawmakers are trending towards looser restrictions. Trying to hide a store a few blocks down the street is not going to change that. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart