Pubdate: Wed, 28 Oct 2015
Source: Standard, The (St. Catharines, CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 St. Catharines Standard
Contact: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/letters
Website: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/676
Author: Grant LaFleche
Page: A2

LEGAL POT IS COMING, SO GET USED TO IT

Here is the deal, folks. Sooner or later, probably sooner, pot is 
going to be legal in Canada.

All the signs are moving in that direction. Medical marijuana is 
already a reality and, despite the dire warnings of some, the sky did 
not fall and Canada did not turn into a cesspool of scum and villainy.

In Niagara Falls Tuesday, city councillors scheduled a meeting to 
discuss regulations governing the growing, processing, packaging of 
medical marijuana in the city.

Some residents are none to pleased with the idea.

Glenn and Elaine Wilson, for instance, wrote a letter to the city 
describing the notion of a medical marijuana facility in the city as 
"appalling" and "ethically and morally wrong."

They say that "as parents and educators we have gone to great lengths 
to teach our children about drugs," and want any facility placed 
outside Niagara Falls city limits.

The underlying logic to these sorts of objections is simplistic, in 
the pejorative sense of that word: So called "street" drugs are bad. 
The sale of said drugs is a criminal activity. Where criminal 
activity is done, there are criminals and the surrounding neighborhood suffers.

Marijuana is a street drug, therefore the sale of marijuana in a 
community will result in criminal activity. And lots of addicts who 
will then use far more harmful drugs such as cocaine.

This reasoning only works if you just decide to ignore a bunch of 
critical elements that are at play here.

Medical marijuana is a regulated and controlled substance. Having a 
business that processes it for medical use is effectively no 
different than having a factory in your community that produces 
Aspirin or an antibiotic.

You don't see drive-by shootings or creepy dudes selling penicillin 
in alley ways around those places do you?

If you think that worrying about a company that makes cancer drugs 
will turn kids into addicts is ridiculous, then you'll understand why 
"moral" objections to medical marijuana is silly.

What really seems to get people gnashing their teeth though, is the 
larger idea that pot will become legal beyond just medical uses, 
turning children into drooling addicts.

We saw this during the election. The Tories tried to say the Liberals 
were going to give pot to kids, thereby turning Canada into a giant, 
wintery flop house. That might be an exaggeration, but you get the 
general idea.

The reality, however, is that pot exists. It's as ubiquitous as 
smokes, booze and Internet porn. Despite what outgoing Prime Minister 
Stephen Harper said, pot is not infinitely more dangerous than 
cigarettes or wine. The harm factor from consumption is roughly the same.

Legalizing it doesn't mean pot dealers are showing up at your kid's 
school, any more than LCBO reps are pushing VQA wines on fifth 
graders. It means it will be regulated, taxed and controlled just 
like cigarettes and alcohol.

If you are truly concerned about the "moral" implications of how pot 
is sold, transforming it into a control substance should make you rejoice.

Many years ago, a police intelligence officer told me how marijuana 
is a major source of income for outlaw biker gangs.

In Niagara we've seen some major biker busts of the years, some of 
which included significant cocaine trafficking charges perhaps 
creating a false impression of how their money is generated.

The bread and butter of many of these gangs is pot. That intelligence 
officer told me that every time someone in the region bought 
marijuana they were putting money into the pocket of organized crime.

Which, I need not say, comes with consequences well beyond smelling 
bad and getting a case of the munchies.

By regulating it like cigarettes, you slice off a significant source 
of criminal income, make it safer for citizens to acquire and 
generating more tax resources that can be used by police and public 
health officials.

I'm not saying pot use is, on the whole, a moral good. It is no more 
a good thing that cigarettes or alcohol.

But politics is about grappling with reality to create the best 
possible outcome or society as a whole.

To ignore reality is what is appalling and unethical. And the sooner 
we come to understand that as a community, the sooner we can move on 
to more serious problems.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom