Pubdate: Fri, 02 Dec 2011
Source: Morning Star, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 The Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1352
Author: Don Rollins

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

When Canada's previous Liberal government started making noises a few 
years back about decriminalizing marijuana, the U.S. got very antsy.

Canada backed down - as we always do when Uncle Sam expresses 
displeasure - and our current Conservative majority government, feet 
firmly planted in the 19th century as usual, has actually toughened 
marijuana possession penalties by imposing mandatory six-month 
minimum sentences for growing or even possessing miniscule amounts of 
the dreaded weed.

Soon, we'll have our prisons full of folks serving 10 or 20-year 
terms for being caught with a few joints, just like our misguided 
cousins to the south.

Can privatized penitentiaries be far behind, to handle the increase 
in "unreported crime" that Stockwell Day apparently had seen in an 
apocalyptic vision?

At the same time as our national government is stubbornly bucking a 
worldwide realization that the "war on drugs" has caused far more 
social ills than it has ever cured, police have noted low compliance 
with recent laws prohibiting talking or texting on a cellphone while driving.

Our governments obviously have things backwards. Which group - casual 
marijuana users or drivers on cell phones - presents the biggest 
danger to the health and welfare of the rest of us?

How about mandatory minimum six-month jail sentences for morons who 
text or talk on their cell phones while driving - and leave the 
casual pot smokers alone?

Don Rollins,

Vernon
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom