Pubdate: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 Source: Tribune, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2015, Osprey Media Group Inc. Contact: http://www.wellandtribune.ca/letters Website: http://www.wellandtribune.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2807 Author: Grant LaFleche Page: 3 FUSS OVER POT MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING The warnings came regularly. On the mornings of the first Monday of the month to be exact, issued through the crackling wall mounted speakers of my high school's laughably terrible intercom system. That was the day the school's chaplain - a tiny, quiet man who spent as much time helping an actual leper colony in the Philippines as he did working with students - would read his sermon. And as often as not, Father Vincent Lu would warn us of the danger of addictive gateways. "You go to a party and your friend says ' Have a beer'," Father Lu would say. "So you have a beer. Soon you are addicted." One beer opens one to a legion of dangers - illicit drug use, violence and sex. So we had best stay away! I didn't buy into Catholic theology, but I always respected the padre, particularly his work with the poor and forgotten. But his idea that exposure to one potentially addictive substance would trigger a lifetime of suffering was laughable even then. One beer, one cigarette or even one joint does not automatically spell doom for a person or society. And yet, when asked this week about decriminalizing marijuana, some local federal candidates sounded an awful lot like Father Lu. St. Catharines Tory incumbent Rick Dykstra says marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug. So it should remain illegal. The Conservative narrative around pot centres upon the notion of its extreme danger, as though it exists on the same level as heroin or cocaine. ( It doesn't.) It must remain illegal to prevent chaos. Niagara's NDP incumbent, Malcolm Allen, while less alarmist about it than Dykstra, also thinks legalization is going to an extreme. Both think a new enforcement scheme to reduce penalties to spare the costs on our courts is a possibility. But legalization? Have you lost your mind? Think about the children! Ironically, I doubt any of these candidates would speak the same away of two drugs that marijuana is rather akin to - cigarettes and alcohol. Instead of treating pot the same as cigarettes and alcohol - regulating and taxing it and thereby cutting criminals off from revenue - we do this silly dance where it is legal-ish for medical use, but not for anyone else. Although technically illicit, pot's use is nearly akin to legal drugs of recreation and the country. I haven't been impressed, on the whole, with the Liberal campaign thus far but at least St. Catharines candidate Chris Bittle is on the side of common sense on this issue, advocating legalization and regulation. Certainly, the fate of these candidates will not turn upon their view of marijuana. It's just one of those issues that show how far our politics is divorced from common sense. And it does make me wonder if our would- be leaders cannot come to grips with something this simple, how well will they fair with issues of real importance and complexity? - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom