Pubdate: Fri, 10 Jan 2014
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: 
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Naomi Lakritz

CANADA DOESN'T NEED TO BE A NATION OF POTHEADS

Justin Trudeau, meet David Brooks. Read Brooks now, and then, if you 
become prime minister in the next election, re-read him before you 
bring forward your stupid idea about legalizing marijuana. Brooks 
offers the best, most eloquent explanation why marijuana should never 
be legalized.

Writing in the New York Times recently, Brooks, who smoked pot as a 
teen himself, wisely refuses to play the game of duelling studies, in 
which one side of the debate produces research to back up its 
contentions, the other side rebuts with different research that 
supports its own stance, and everyone ends up at a stalemate, as 
polarized as when they started. Rather, he talks about marijuana in 
terms of the kind of society we want to have, something to which 
Trudeau ought to give some very sober second thought if he wants to 
be the prime minister of this country.

Brooks wrote his column after marijuana became legal in Colorado on 
Jan. 1. Sales of recreational pot reached $5 million in the first 
week, incidentally lending a whole new meaning to Denver's famous 
claim to be the mile-high city.

Brooks gave up pot as he moved through his teens, in part, because "I 
think we had a vague sense that smoking weed was not exactly 
something you were proud of yourself for. It's not something people 
admire. We were ... trying to become more integrated, coherent and 
responsible people. This process usually involves using the powers of 
reason, temperance and self-control - not qualities one associates 
with being high."

No, none of that is associated with being high. People who are high 
waste their time, energy, resources and money sitting around stupidly 
in their drug induced fantasy world. Giddy and silly in their idiotic 
altered state, it is impossible for anyone who is sober to have any 
kind of reasoned communication with them.

"I don't have any problem with somebody who gets high from time to 
time, but I guess, on the whole, I think being stoned is not a 
particularly uplifting form of pleasure and should be discouraged 
more than encouraged," Brooks writes.

Alcohol is legal, and that's fine. Its responsible use in moderation 
harms no one and its effects wear off quickly. But marijuana should 
not be legal.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana stays in the body for about a month after 
use, continuing to affect the workings of the user's brain. Do we 
really want a country in which people are going to their jobs each 
day still subtly under the influence from a recent high, even though 
outwardly they appear sober?

Open-heart surgery on Tuesday by a doctor who got legally high last 
Saturday night, anyone? No? Didn't think so. Levels of THC, the main 
ingredient in pot, are not down to zero in that doctor's brain and 
risk affecting his judgment.

Marijuana's legalization will only add to the ills that already come 
with the abuse of alcohol, including addiction and driving under the influence.

Addictions lead to marriage breakups and the dissolution of families. 
And as Brooks succinctly puts it: "Smoking (pot) and driving is a 
good way to get yourself killed." Or get someone else killed, for 
that matter. Do we not have enough tragedies already caused by drunk 
drivers? And we need to add to the amount of substance abuse in 
society because - why?

Brooks says the legalization of pot in Colorado and in Washington 
state before that means prices will drop and "simple economics ... 
confirmed by much research" suggests that "usage is bound to 
increase." And when usage increases, so do all the ills it brings. Do 
we really need that in Canada, Mr. Wanna-Be Prime Minister?

The government of a healthy society, Brooks says, wants to "subtly 
tip the scale to favour temperate, prudent, self-governing 
citizenship." Thus, he says that things like the arts and enjoyment 
of nature need to be encouraged by government, and things like 
getting high need to be discouraged.

Being a pothead is something nobody should aspire to or be proud of, 
and as a society, we should disdain marijuana use, not celebrate it. 
Trudeau needs to reflect long and hard on what kind of society a 
Liberal-led government wants Canada to be. Pot, order and good 
government isn't quite on the mark, is it?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom