Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jan 2011
Source: Sheaf, The (CN SN Edu)
Copyright: 2011 Sheaf Publishing Society, Inc.,
Contact: http://thesheaf.com/contact/
Website: http://www.thesheaf.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2691
Author: Michael Cuthbertson
Note: Michael Cuthbertson is a second year psychology student, avid 
writer, and supporter of the legalization of marijuana.

MARIJUANA: UNUSUAL, YES, BUT FAR FROM HARMFUL

Canada's Policy of Prohibition Criminalizes Unconventional Thought

In Canada today, marijuana use and its perceived danger to society is 
considered a legal issue. But history reveals that marijuana 
prohibition isn't really about the effects of THC.

In 1937, the United States began prohibiting the plant as an excuse 
to repatriate illegal Mexican immigrants. Since so many used and sold 
the drug, prohibition legitimized the deportation of these people. 
Canada, swayed by the American rhetoric of fear (a proud tradition we 
continue to this day), followed suit and began arresting users.

Considering the seedy origins of this prohibitionist approach, I'd 
rather turn to a more personal question: what exactly is it about pot 
that legislators and citizens find so harmful?

For some, it is wrong for the simple fact that it is illegal. A 
common counter to this is that tobacco and alcohol are legal yet 
these drugs are more fatal and cause more health problems. Still, 
some challenge this with fanatical fabrications about teens 
developing schizophrenia from smoking pot or people developing lung 
cancer from it. These charges lack scientific weight. Nevertheless, 
some legitimate research has come out on the harmful effects of weed.

In BBC's Cannabis: The Evil Weed?, studies performed on "adolescent" 
mice who received THC revealed memory deficits lasting into 
adulthood. The study concluded these mice were analogous to teens 15 
or younger who smoke cannabis. The moral: drugs are bad for the 
developing brain.

But we already knew this. We don't sell cigarettes or alcohol to 
kids, nor should we sell them weed. But from what I've seen, 
marijuana is not stigmatized out of health concerns. Mostly, people 
scorn marijuana for being, for lack of a better term, weird.

Pot encourages unusual thinking; not violent, not harmful, but 
certainly not normal. It is a drug that can create a sense of 
commonality and humanity, and the powers that be rightfully recognize 
that a peaceful hippie with non-conformist thinking poses far more of 
a threat to the maintenance of their power than an obedient, 
anti-marijuana Canadian citizen.

Similarly, as a party drug, pot seems an odd choice. While it might 
turn you on to some obscure, bizarre rock music, smoking marijuana 
won't exactly have you grinding with that hot chick or dude you 
totally want to bone. At least not in the way, say, alcohol or other 
recreational drugs might. Hence, the stigma of marijuana is not so 
much about bodily harm, rather the moral relativism of our culture 
versus another.

A few months ago my friend was thrown out of his parent's house 
because he's a pot smoker. As a belated Christmas gift, the same 
thing just happened to me. My morality was not consistent with my 
parents' Christian one, so they did what any good Christian would do: 
threw their son into the street.

Still, I was dumbfounded when the big confrontation came. I was taken 
aback by the language they used -- it seemed to suggest that most of 
what they hated about weed was it's weirdness. My mom told me "Your 
room smells like weed," as if the very smell of weed were wrong or 
evil somehow. She continued, "Weed makes you dysfunctional," to which 
I replied that I have a 70 per cent average in university -- and 
wasn't that functional enough? Reading between the lines, I knew what 
she really meant: marijuana makes you different, puts you on a 
different plane of thought from the "functional" non-smokers of society.

But I realize my plight is petty, compared to the many serving time 
for smoking or selling weed. As many as 20 million Americans have 
been arrested, convicted and incarcerated for use of marijuana. It is 
not a stretch to presume that many of these "felons" weren't harming 
anyone when they got busted - because as a general rule, stoned 
people don't even have the energy to commit violent crimes. And so it 
seems people are being arrested not as a precautionary measure to 
protect society from collapse, but for possessing and using a 
substance deemed unnatural, for spending the afternoon listening to 
Pink Floyd instead of shopping at Wal-Mart (like real Americans do).

Although marijuana is currently illegal in Canada, in practice it is 
largely tolerated in small quantities. Thankfully, this typically 
translates into fines instead of prison terms for those arrested on 
charges of possessing or trafficking the substance. However, 
prohibitionists -- that is, the Conservative Party of Canada, along 
with the support of the Liberals -- are pushing for more draconian 
measures. Bill S-10, if passed, would introduce mandatory minimum 
prison sentences for the sale of cannabis.

In stark opposition, the Green Party of Canada, alongside provincial 
marijuana parties, continue to push for full legalization of cannabis use.

Despite these parties' meager political power, their cause is well 
supported. A 2009 Angus Reid poll found that 53 per cent of Canadians 
agree with the statement "The use of marijuana should be legalized."

For the 47 per cent in opposition, ask yourself: what is it about 
legalization that would negatively impact our country? Perhaps you 
believe that more people will become potheads -- and you're probably 
right. Most people feel comfortable using a substances if their 
culture deems it right. In 1930s America -- during alcohol's 
prohibition era -- marijuana remained perfectly legal. It was sold 
like cigarettes in jazz clubs, markets and pharmacies, and not 
surprisingly, the drug became quite popular in that time.

While the decision to smoke or withhold from smoking marijuana should 
be a personal choice, prohibiting the substance takes away such 
liberty. The current system is not only haphazard, but sends a 
dangerous, dichotomizing message to the public: that all currently 
illegal drugs are bad, and all presently legal drugs are alright.

Ask yourself -- who knows your body better: you or Canadian legislators?
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom