As a longtime consumer of pot, I was highly offended by letter-writer Bozenna Siedlecka's theory that life for marijuana users is not "worth living."

You're saying Beatles legend Paul McCartney's life is worthless? How about CNN founder Ted Turner's? The great actor Jack Nicholson? Former U.S. president Barack Obama?

That's naming just a few public figures who have smoked marijuana. Any one of these folks has made a bigger contribution to society, I am sure, than Siedlecka.

Rod Barron, Surrey

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Illegal booths continue to operate in downtown square despite mayor's vow to crack down

After Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said to "stay tuned" to see how the city and police plan to oust illegal pot vendors from the Vancouver Art Gallery square, a handful of vendors were still operating an open drug market there.

Darren Tarry, owner of DZ Buddz, is one of the unlicensed marijuana vendors regularly setting up shop on the south side of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

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When it becomes legal later this year, the City of Armstrong hopes to be ready for the production and selling of marijuana within its boundaries.

The city asked for, and received, direction from staff on the legalization of marijuana in Canada - which is slated to come into law July 1 - and potential municipal regulatory rules.

"We have to realize that come July, there will be changes," said Mayor Chris Pieper. "We have to look forward to handling the direction of our federal government. We haven't been involved in this but it's evolving in front of us everyday.

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Less that six months before the start of the legal marijuana era begins, here's what the B.C. government has decided when it comes to how to handle it:

* The minimum age for consumption and possession will be 19,

* Wholesales distribution will be handled by the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch,

* Retail sales will go through some mix of public and private stores.

There's a bit more to this than just those items.

B.C. and other provinces have also succeeded in budging the federal government off its original offer of a 50-50 sharing of cannabis tax revenues. It's going to be 75 per cent to the provinces, and Ottawa's share is capped at $100 million a year. That suggests that the federal government won't be making much money off this change, not that it expected much, given the new costs to be incurred. Whether the provinces can turn a buck from the new revenue stream remains to be seen, since they'll bear most of the new costs.

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Terry Lake, the former B.C. health minister who oversaw the declaration of a public-health emergency amid the deadly fentanyl crisis, is urging more research on the effects of marijuana on opioid addictions.

Now a vice-president at a medical cannabis company, Lake said there is preliminary evidence that shows marijuana can help people with addictions reduce their use of hard drugs and ease the painful symptoms of withdrawal.

"I'm not saying it's the answer to the opioid crisis. I'm saying it's one of the options we should explore," said Lake, who chose not to run in last spring's provincial election. "It's very promising and deserving of further research and there's no better place to do that than in British Columbia."

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Addiction is a serious issue, but it shouldn't be a criminal one, says Derek Chang.

"I just learned that my cousin overdosed at a friend's party. His friends were afraid of calling 911 and left him alone. He was eventually brought to the hospital but remained in a coma and died the following day."

Biting her lips, my patient told me this painful news in the clinic. I thought I wouldn't be hearing these kinds of tragedies again after the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act came into legislation last year.

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Re: "Needle warning issued after 2 pricks in 2 days," Jan. 11.

I agree that it is distressing when a child or anyone else is pricked by a foreign needle. However, the furor over this and similar incidents overshadows the real problem that we have today with drug and other substance abuse.

Until we address the poverty and homelessness problem that exists today across the country, we will always have addictions. If the basic level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is not met, people suffer. That suffering hurts, and people find ways to numb the hurt. That way is through substance abuse.

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People in crisis are seen quickly, while access to needed services

When she was mired in a seemingly endless drug addiction, Phyliss Sauve couldn't slog her way through the health care and social services systems that were intended to help her.

It was nearly impossible to make or keep appointments with doctors, drug counsellors and social workers when she had no home, no phone, no car. "You don't see any way out, and I would get frustrated, so I would just keep doing what I was doing."

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Canada will be the greatest tourist destination for drug sales and tourism

Editor,

There is a lot of talk about legalizing the marijuana weed and other psychedelics.

Pay no attention to the narrow-minded, inconsiderate, uneducated opposition aligned with the anti-democratic, misogynist, racist, reactionary old school.

One thing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knows is drugs, and that's why legalizing marijuana is a high priority for our Liberal Federal Government.

Considerate people like us have an obligation to command progress for social change for the working class.

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The methods Penticton police used to search phones connected to a drug investigation were again called into question on Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court. Jennifer Montgomery, 31, is facing one charge of possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking and two counts of simple possession of heroin and methamphetamine. Her trial began Wednesday.

Montgomery's phone was seized by police after a search warrant was executed June 22, 2016, at her Penticton home, where RCMP Const. Chad Jackson testified drugs and paraphernalia associated with drug dealing were found.

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Abbotsford-Mission was declared the "murder capital of Canada" for its homicide rates in 2008 and 2009 - at the height of a drug war between the Red Scorpions and UN gangs.

Now a different gang conflict is putting the area back in the running for the title.

The Abbotsford-Mission census metropolitan (CMA) area tallied 10 murders in 2017, one in Mission and nine in Abbotsford.

The local CMA is one of 33 included in Statistics Canada homicide rates formally released every July for the previous year.

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Dear editor: This is a response to Gord Marshall's wherein he states "Pot smokers will hurt the water system" (Daily Courier, Jan. 9).

Mr. Marshall, your statement may or may not be true. From what I have seen, pot smokers generally keep their roaches, as they are called (not butts), because pot is expensive and the old roach material can be used later in another joint or pipe. There is very little waste.

Also, people don't hang out on the corner drinking beer because there are bars to go to, where you can relax and have a drink. Very civilized. Looks like pot smokers will have no such luxury.

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Marijuana, cannabis, pot, whatever you want to call it, it will become legal in Canada sometime this year following the U.S. where pot is legal in several states.

I do not smoke pot or anything else. Two glasses of wine and I am asleep. I do get high though watching the Patriots and the Red Sox win. I am also asthmatic and any kind of smoke bothers me. There is a lot of kerfuffle going on and this is my take on this hot topic.

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The Kettlewell family has been in the business of selling alcohol for decades. These days, the family owns 11 liquor stores in British Columbia.

Business has been good, as the Kettlewells have doubled the number of their Jak's Beer Wine Spirits stores in the past five years. But what most intrigues the Kettlewells these days is a new product: cannabis.

The emerging rules around the legalization of cannabis vary by province. In general, governments will be heavily involved - and the sale of cannabis will be kept apart from alcohol, following Ottawa's recommendation. In B.C., however, a unique landscape is being considered, one in which government-owned liquor stores, as well as private liquor stores, sell cannabis. Alongside these stores, currently illegal cannabis dispensaries might also be allowed to operate in the legal market.

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Jennifer Montgomery, 31, was charged with a number of drug offences after Mounties obtained a search warrant for her home

Police had every right to use text messages found on a woman's phone to launch a subsequent drug investigation inside the home she had just left, a judge ruled Wednesday in Penticton. The validity of that tactic was challenged in a voir dire at the outset of the B.C. Supreme Court trial for Jennifer Montgomery, 31, who is charged with possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, plus simple possession of heroin and methamphetamine.

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Will the selling of marijuana in liquor stores result in poor health outcomes, higher health costs and more impaired driving?

The answer, according to two credible and well-respected medical professionals, is a resounding "yes," and it's an answer they are trying to get the NDP government to sit up and take notice of.

Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s long-serving chief provincial health officer, and Dr. Marcus Lem, the chairman of the Health Officers Council of B.C., are leading the charge against what is a widespread assumption that liquor stores will indeed be the primary outlet for the sales of cannabis once it becomes legal on July 1st.

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Adverse childhood experiences linked to drug abuse, says TrinaLarsen Soles.

The opioid epidemic is the biggest public health crisis to hit B.C. in decades. Upwards of four people a day are dying of overdoses, usually due to fentanyl poisoning of the street drug supply.

To date the B.C. government has committed $322 million to address the crisis, including opening more supervised consumption sites, providing naloxone kits, urging people not to use alone, and trying to stop tainted drugs from coming into B.C.

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The B.C. government will soon be weeding through resumes as the province looks to hire the right people to run its marijuana-sales business.

The province will be the sole wholesale distributor of recreational pot through the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch when cannabis becomes legal across Canada, which is expected to happen this summer.

The B.C. Public Service Agency is advertising two jobs - executive director and director of merchandising - for the liquor branch's cannabis operations.

Qualifications for the executive director job, which pays between $126,000 and $140,000 a year, include having a post-secondary degree in a related field and "several years of progressive senior leadership experience" in leading a wholesale and retail division.

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They climb high buildings, bend steel and do dangerous jobs with little room for error, but while sounding a bit like superheroes, many fly under the radar as they struggle with mental health and addiction problems.

A construction industry program that offers additional services and mental health treatment has seen demand more than double in the past year, driven by the fentanyl epidemic and the organization's efforts to reach more workers.

"It is frightening what is happening in our industry. One of the reasons we are seeing so many people coming in is because they are scared," Vicky Waldron, executive director of the Construction Industry Rehabilitation Plan, told Postmedia News.

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One can only hope that people around the world are enlightened enough not to follow Canada's commitment to making its citizens brainless for good all for the sake of a vibrant marijuana industry making big money.

The euphoria marijuana creates is short, while the miserable life it sometimes produces for its worshippers is a struggle and not the kind of life worth living.

Bozenna Siedlecka, Port Moody

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