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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom