Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jul 2016
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Page: 18
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: David Krayden

GOING TO POT: WHY AREN'T POLICE CRACKING DOWN ON DISPENSARIES?

You used to drop by the Pop Shop to prepare for a party; now you can 
peruse the pot shop.

Stores selling marijuana are cropping up in Ottawa these days, but 
usually in locales that service other addictions, such as sex and 
pornography. One local adult video retailer, co-located with a pot 
shop, went so far as to describe his commercial geography as a "red 
light district."

Honestly. I know that Justin Trudeau is prime minister. Yes, he has 
promised to legalize weed and yes, he has acknowledged being a user. 
That didn't surprise me: I'll bet he can stop anytime, too.

Nonetheless, he has yet to craft or pass the necessary legislation to 
transition marijuana use from the verboten to the mainstream. So that 
means the current laws are still in effect.

So where is the Ottawa Police Service and why isn't it enforcing 
these statutes? Why are the political hobby horses of the Left always 
treated with such great discretion by the forces of law and order who 
increasingly appear more indecisive and pusillanimous?

Clearly, the law is the law and the illegality should be applied in 
this instance.

To do otherwise is to erode the very legitimacy of our political 
culture. There should be no exceptions made due to an anticipated 
change to the law; there should be no irresolution because some at 
police headquarters consider it dangerously politically incorrect to 
apply the law where marijuana are concerned - just because the prime 
minister is a consumer.

These stores should not even be open for business, let alone selling 
an illegal product.

And what of the usually ubiquitous Mayor Jim Watson who must be 
vaguely conscious of this surreal commerce?

Well the mayor has been "unavailable for comment" for the past two 
weeks and undoubtedly will continue to make himself scarce for the 
next fortnight as he evades any legitimate question about why pot 
shops can flagrantly ignore the law in this city.

I can't remember Watson, either in his current municipal incarnation 
or in his previous political life as a provincial Liberal cabinet 
minister, ever turning down a media op because he couldn't think of 
anything to say. But in the midst of Ottawa's own Cheech and Chong 
movie, the words just aren't coming.

Well, politics is an avenue of new experiences.

But this shouldn't be one of them. No matter how contemptible are the 
cannabis sales, the legalization of marijuana itself will be another 
seminal moment in the cultural destruction of Canada.

Having grown up in the marijuana capital of Canada - British Columbia 
- - and seeing firsthand how weed produces febrile young minds that 
become enfeebled older minds, I remain firmly convinced that pot use 
not only engenders chronic lethargy and unleashes addictive bondage, 
but that marijuana is indeed a gateway drug that, with regular use, 
inevitably leads to stronger poisons.

For a society that is increasingly in the grips of addictive 
behaviour, the legalization of marijuana is akin to stoking a fire 
with jet fuel.

This a consummation devoutly to be condemned.

But while the law retains some semblance of sanity, let's please enforce it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom