Pubdate: Fri, 05 Jun 2009
Source: Northumberland Today (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 Sun Media
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/TsYrjmMc
Website: http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5003
Author: Russell Barth

PIPES ARE 'MEDICAL ASSISTIVE DEVICES'

As a federally licensed medical marijuana user who is also married to 
one, I would like to comment on "Drug tools available on local 
shelves", June 2.

Cobourg Mayor Peter Delanty said, "...and obviously is a gateway drug 
to harder drugs." Marijuana is not a gateway to harder drugs. This 
prohibitionist myth has been repeatedly and soundly debunked. He may 
as well insist the earth is flat, for all the scientific accuracy it 
holds. One need look no further than the 2002 Senate Committee on 
Drugs for proof.

If Delanty continues to assert this scientifically proven lie, he 
could face a Human Rights Complaint for deliberately 
mis-characterizing and stigmatizing marijuana users - many of whom 
are licensed to use marijuana for debilitating or life-threatening 
conditions. We will not tolerate people speaking about us or our 
medicine in this way, and demand he retract the statement.

As for Cobourg Police Chief Paul Sweet's comments, "It just shows the 
wrong attitude towards drugs and substance abuse", not all drug use is abuse.

These devices are medical assistive devices. Licensed medical 
marijuana users, and the hundreds of thousands of unlicensed users, 
need them to deliver their medicine. They need to buy them somewhere, 
so banning them could invite even more Human Rights complaints and 
even lawsuits.

That said, these devices should be out of the sight of kids and 
should not be promoted where kids can see them.

As for what constituents want, the general public is so miserably 
misinformed about marijuana and its users - due in large part because 
of ridiculous fear-mongering articles like this one - that their 
opinions should not really mean much. You wouldn't consult a 
five-year-old on foreign policy, so why ask the public about 
something they simply do not understand?

Russell Barth

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis Nepean ON
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom