Pubdate: Tue, 9 Nov 2010 Source: St. Thomas Times-Journal (CN ON) Copyright: 2010 Osprey Media Contact: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx Website: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/953 Author: Alan Shanoff Cited: The Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs http://www.drugscience.org.uk/ Referenced: The Le Dain Commission report http://mapinc.org/url/YAxDUB0o Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Proposition+19 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) WINNING POT-SHOT ON DRUG WAR? DECRIMINALIZATION Drug cartels, criminals, police chiefs, alcohol manufacturers and retailers, prison employees and big pharma, now can sleep easier. California's Proposition 19 was defeated last week 54% to 46%. Marijuana prohibition remains in force in California. Recreational possession and use of pot remains illegal in North America. But don't let your guard down. Keep lobbying against lifting pot prohibition because sooner or later people are going to come to their senses and accept that prohibition has been an abject failure. All it's managed to do is push up the price of pot and give a near monopoly to drug cartels, resulting in higher profits for criminals and increased violence when dealers try to protect their turf. At the same time, we've made criminals out of recreational pot users. In spite of billions of dollars spent enforcing prohibition, pot is almost as available as liquor products. Perhaps even moreso since minors can purchase pot more readily than they can purchase alcohol. I'm not in favour of or advocating pot use, just common sense. When judges, retired police chiefs, scientists and economists tell us prohibition doesn't work and is a colossal waste of money, isn't it time to at least debate the subject intelligently using evidence rather than scaremongering reefer madness arguments? The number of myths surrounding marijuana use is staggering: it is a gateway drug; it causes mental illness; it is more dangerous than tobacco; it is highly addictive; it kills brain cells -- all myths that can be debunked. However, it is no myth that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. The Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs in England recently rated marijuana with a harm score of 20 compared with alcohol at 72. Might legalization increase marijuana usage? Perhaps in the short term, but we're told marijuana is more widely used in North American than it is in the Netherlands where it is legally available in government-run shops. Would more teens experiment with marijuana if it were legal? Perhaps, but with the easy availability of it, any teen who wants to experiment already can do so. We know marijuana has medical uses -- indeed some components of pot may have anti-tumor effects -- and we allow its compassionate medical use to help alleviate chronic pain, nausea and side effects of chemotherapy. We do so grudgingly in Canada, where it can take three to six months or longer to get a one-year permit, even though the use of pot can reduce the need to take other, more expensive drugs. Is there any rational reason to criminalize recreational pot use when we don't criminalize alcohol use? If the only reason is alcohol is already legal, then remember marijuana was legal in Canada until 1923 and alcohol use was illegal in the U.S. between 1920 and 1933. Don't take my word on the need for drug reform. Take the word of the authors of the 2002 Report Of The Senate Special Committee On Illegal Drugs. The Commission concluded the criminalization of cannabis had no scientific basis. Canada is poised to pass Bill S-10 which would allow a minimum sentence of six to nine months for anyone caught growing six or more marijuana plants. Wonderful. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake