Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jun 2010 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Page: 2 Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Josh Freed A WAY FOR GOVERNMENT TO DEAL WITH DOPE Last week, Quebec police departments busted five "compassion clubs" that were selling "medical marijuana" to anyone with a doctor's note - -but that's just a whiff of what's going on elsewhere. I was in California recently, the loosest U.S. state for marijuana laws, where 1,000 "compassion clubs" were operating legally while I was there. Sometimes it was hard to believe my eyes. On the famed boardwalk at Venice Beach, I passed the "Kush Doctor's Marijuana Club," a beachfront store with a long lineup beside a big sign saying MEDICAL MARIJUANA AVAILABLE HERE! As thousands of bikers, bladers and tourists streamed by, bikini-clad "nurses" handed out "Kush Doctor" pamphlets and shouted: "Get your legal pot here!" Meanwhile, police just sauntered by. A girl of maybe 18 handed me a pamphlet and told me how to get some. "Ya just go inside like I did and tell the doctor ... you know, your problems .. and he'll give you a prescription and, uh, you know ... like then you get your stuff." Under California law, doctors can prescribe marijuana if you suffer from "sports injuries, auto accidents, anxiety, insomnia, asthma, cancer or any ill for which marijuana provides relief" -like a stubbed toe. Once you get your doctor's letter, you choose from a counter display of designer pot with names like Purple Kush, Sour Diesel, Juicyfruit and Trainwreck. There are also granola marijuana bars and chocolate pot turtles "for medicinal use only." It's all legal in California, as long as you pay the 8.25-per-cent sales tax. Last week, state police did close down several hundred clubs deemed to be dicey, but hundreds remain legally open, including mine on Venice Beach. This November, California will hold a state referendum to legalize marijuana -and a recent Los Angeles Times poll predicts a large majority will vote yes. My own grass-smoking days are long behind me, but I think legalization is the right way to go. Fighting marijuana is an endless battle that sends many innocent users to jail. It's also spawned a massive crime industry with gang battles, drug kings and a drug war in Mexico that kills more 10,000 people a year. Why not decriminalize it -as 53 per cent of Canadians say they want? The only devil is in the details. Even if we do decriminalize pot, how would we do it? We don't allow public drinking on the street, so we wouldn't encourage people to roam around smoking joints at Ste. Catherine St. benches and bus stops. Maybe we'd follow Amsterdam, the European drug capital where you must go to a "cannabis cafe" with "pot menus" featuring stuff like Lebanon Gold and Afghan Supermellow hashish. But unlike Amsterdam, Montreal law makes it illegal to smoke in cafes -and if you can't smoke inside, or outside, where's left? Inside your car with the windows up? Or maybe at special "grass picnics," on the grass? These issues pale compared with how marijuana would be sold. Presumably, government would become the only legal dealer, bringing the usual problems of any government monopoly. In Quebec, the SAQ could set up a Maison du Marijuana with designer shelves like their wine stores and civil service "weed consultants" offering advice like SAQ sommeliers. "May I recommend the Rene Levesque superstrong independantiste ganja, or the Pierre Trudeau homegrown lite, for the elderly." But that might encourage more public use, so the government would probably create gloomier dispensaries, like the SAQ did back in the '60s, when all liquor was hidden in a back room. You'd have to line up for your marijuana at a clerk's desk and order by its generic Latin name. YOU: Hi. I'd like some marijuana, please. CLERK Sorry, sir. Will that be Cannabis sativa Linnaeus, subspecies sativa var. spontanea? Or would you prefer Cannabis indica var. kafiristanica forma afghanica? YOU: Uhh ... you don't just have some vodka, do you? Once the bureaucracy was set up, we'd see the same problems as everywhere in government. Quebec Marijuana Board executives would be caught spending too much money on expenses while flying off to sample products in Morocco, India and Jamaica. The province's Director of Dope Sales would be charged with submitting $500,000 in rolling paper and water pipes as a business expense. There'd be more trouble when the Quebec Marijuana Board decided to support certain festivals like the SAQ does. There'd be the B.C. Bud Montreal jazz fest and the Ganja Grand Prix -but a scandal would break out when they sponsored a children's AfghanBhangBlack Supermellow Shakespeare in the Pot Park. On the plus side, marijuana would no longer cause a criminal offence or waste trillion of hours of police effort. On the downside, when government takes over the marijuana business, you can bet medical compassion clubs will lose their compassion. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom