Pubdate: Sun, 24 Apr 2016
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Page: 59
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Stephen LeDrew
Note: LeDrew is a Toronto lawyer and broadcaster

CANADA WARNED OF THE DANGERS OF LEGALIZING POT

TORONTO - What a week for Canada and pot!

Follow this train of news events and then ask yourself whether we are
speeding towards a wreck.

On Sunday, an international conference on cannabis policy cautioned
Canada not to err in the way of the U.S. states of Washington and
Colorado, where pot overuse and intoxicated driving have become all
too common.

Expert observers maintain we need new social mores to deal with pot
culture - so potheads will learn that they should not smoke and drive.

Hello? What else could anyone expect from legalization? An upturn in
church attendance?

Legalized pot is advertised and sold by large corporations;
consumption explodes; profits flow; criminal elements insinuate themselves.

Greedy governments, expecting a pot tax to bail them out of their own
profligate spending, find themselves saddled with increased health
costs, not to mention increased accidents of all sorts.

On Monday, the Civic Action Committee of Toronto released a study
estimating that one in two employees in Toronto, including
professionals and high-earners, are afflicted by mental health issues
at some point in their lifetimes, including depression and substance
abuse.

It estimated $17 billion in lost productivity over the next decade. Do
you believe this estimate of economic and human desperation will be
reduced by the legalization of pot? If you do - go light up. That
brought us to Wednesday or "4/20", the counterculture holiday known as
National Weed Day.

Pot users smoked up at Yonge and Dundas in Toronto, with police
looking on, controlling crowds.

That day, Parliament Hill, that pantheon of lawmakers and sober second
thought, was literally wreathed in a low-lying cloud of marijuana smoke.

Why would the R.C.M.P. make any arrests? No convictions would
ensue.

And then our health minister announced in New York that the Liberal
government will introduce legislation to legalize pot in the spring of
2017.

Does it not strike you as odd that a medical doctor is supporting pot
smoking after all the billions of dollars governments spent convincing
people to butt out of cigarette smoking?

How about a medical doctor encouraging putting drugs in one's body for
recreation?

(Query: Why do our federal politicians feel the need to make major 
announcements impacting Canadians while delivering speeches in the U.S.?)

Let's be clear - pot should be decriminalized - it is silly and unjust
for a teenager to bear a criminal record for life - blocking
employment and travel.

But legalization? What is the matter with the status quo, with a bit
of tweaking to make it more sensible?

Legalizing marijuana will shake the foundations of Canadian society,
and not in a good way.

The purpose of government is to improve the lives of citizens; does
this Liberal initiative seem to you to do that?  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D