Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2017
Source: Standard, The (St. Catharines, CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 St. Catharines Standard
Contact: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/letters
Website: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/676
Author: Rita Dillon
Page: A4

CANADIANS GOING TO POT

In wiser times, cigarettes were considered poison: protect the kids,
reduce health-care expense, ban that toxin almost everywhere. As a
result, we all breathe easier.

Now it's 2017 - set up shops and fill them with pretty coloured weed
balls, like lollipops. Who cares how many more toxins are in those?

Huge numbers of young people in their 20s are still in school and
still dependent on their parents.

Is the medical community thrilled to welcome a new mind-altering drug
we can all enjoy? Is there enough paper to list all the
side-effects?

What about colleges and universities? All those 17- and 18-year-olds,
away from home for the first time, alcohol in front of them
everywhere, but no pressure eh? Just get some lollipops on the weekend
to unwind.

Law enforcement. Why didn't somebody think to ask them for an opinion?
Are they fine picking up the pieces of the little family after a
stoner drifted into the passing lane?

Check in with family services. They're the ones who are called to get
the crying baby when the parents are blissed out. Are they excited
about adding a new government-approved way to mess up the kids?

Employers are asking if they will need urinals and a lab at every
workplace.

There's an opioid crisis in this country, an epidemic even. No irony
there.

Medical marijuana for serious conditions … of course.
Decriminalization for small amounts … acceptable.

Making it legal means it's OK to use. And the most likely to screw up
their lives will be our teenagers. Premiers and MPs should be ashamed.
You spend our money to tell our kids to eat healthy and exercise. And
now you offer them marijuana brownies.

This is not the Canadian way. We deserve better.

Rita Dillon

St. Catharines
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MAP posted-by: Matt