Pubdate: Sat, 24 Aug 2013
Source: Guardian, The (CN PI)
Copyright: 2013 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Rick MacLean
Page: A13

TIME TO ADMIT WAR ON DRUGS A BUST

I was confused.

The Mount Allison hockey team was on the ice against Universite de
Moncton and things were growing rougher by the minute. Fight after
fight had broken out. A bench-clearing brawl seemed certain.

The violence overwhelmed me. Why couldn't they all just get along?

There was only one solution. I turned away from the ice and headed to
the canteen. I needed a hot dog.

"What would you like on it," said the guy behind the counter.

It was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. Ever. I started to giggle.

"The works?"

I lost it. I brayed with laughter. He gave me a knowing look. I put
one hand over my mouth and waved him off with the other, then ran out
the door.

There, I admit it. I smoked dope once. OK, maybe more than once. It
was the 1970s after all.

And as I recall, a number of future lawyers, bankers, teachers and
engineers were in the room on occasion. Yet somehow, the world hasn't
fallen to bits so far. At least, it is no worse than when we started
taking over the job of running it.

Federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau came clean a few days ago and
said horrors! he'd pulled a puff or two in his time. In fact,
relatively recently. New reports say he told a reporter the last time
he'd lit up was about three years ago at his home in Montreal.

"We had a few good friends over for a dinner party, our kids were at
their grandmother's for the night, and one of our friends lit a joint
and passed it around. I had a puff," he was quoted as saying.

It seems the results were less than exciting. Marijuana "has never
really done anything for me," he said. And no, he has never tried any
harder drugs.

Well, we have one thing in common at least. I can't claim wacky tabacy
"never did anything to me."

My hot dog craving did, however, end my dope-smoking days. I went back
by my room, rooted around in the drawer where the remains of my stash
was barely hidden, and headed down the hall of my residence to the
room of a fine arts student who was a friend of mine.

"Here, take this," I said. "I don't want it anymore."

His eyes bulged. I turned and left. He followed me around for about a
week, perhaps hoping this would be a recurring theme.

Trudeau is a politician, so admitting he has smoked dope, while an MP,
is clearly a political calculation. Perhaps he's trying to brand
himself as a new breed of political leader, one capable of
understanding the youth vote, for example.

Whatever.

It's about time society accepted the obvious. Smoking marijuana is not
good for you. It's bad for your lungs. And if my experience at the
rink that night was any measure, long-term use could be a threat to
your waistline.

But the so-called war on drugs has been, predictably, a bust. Like the
attempt to make booze illegal during Prohibition, the only result has
been to make organized crime richer and ordinary citizens defiant.

A Globe and Mail story in June noted more and more Canadians are
ending up in court for possessing pot. In 2007, about 77 of every
100,000 people in Canada were charged with possession. Four years
later the number was 90.

Justin Trudeau's not leading the parade on this issue, he's attempting
to follow it. And when his father was asked if he ever smoked dope,
Pierre famously responded, "Do you mean in this country?"

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- - Rick MacLean is an instructor in the journalism program at Holland
College in Charlottetown
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt