Pubdate: Fri, 04 Jun 2010 Source: Medicine Hat News (CN AB) Copyright: 2010 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc. Contact: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1833 Author: Alan Poirier POT LAWS POINTLESS Enough is enough. Canadian's continued prohibition against the production and sale of marijuana needs to be lifted. It's simply pointless. That much was driven home when police raided so-called "compassion clubs" in Montreal and Quebec City last week. The clubs had been set up to supply marijuana to sick individuals for whom marijuana provides a respite from either pain or symptoms of their illness. Now, Canada has allowed medical access to marihuana since 2001, Ottawa having determined at the time the drug could, in fact, be used to help people. But people who want permission to legally smoke the drug must first go through Health Canada. The compassion clubs had been established to make marijuana available to anyone who said they needed it and who may not have granted permission by Health Canada. Law enforcement officials, speaking to reporters after the raids, said that while the clubs had no links to organized crime, what they were doing was still illegal, contending that the people who came to these clubs were not sick. The raids underline the poverty of our thinking. Study after study has shown that marijuana is no more detrimental to one's health than alcohol and is less so than tobacco. Both those drugs are legally produced and sold in Canada. Most Canadians, moreover, would agree. Polls show that Canadians would like to see simple possession decriminalized and, in fact, legalized. What most Canadians understand is that marijuana use in our society is prevalent and has resisted efforts at prohibition. The truth of the matter is that the war on drugs was lost many years ago and we are wasting our money fighting something that too few deem an offence. Marijuana came close to being decriminalized under the Liberals, but decriminalization has little to no chance under the Conservatives. But while the Tories may be philosophically opposed to decriminalization, they ought to appreciate that not everyone who might benefit from marijuana is winning permission from Health Canada. The compassion clubs, while technically illegal, were nonetheless serving a purpose. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart