Eagle Valley News Published: April 25, 2012 10:00 AM
What do the federal and provincial governments and
marijuana advocacy groups have in common? They monitor every shred of
news related to them published by your local newspapers. The latter not only reads every story related to
marijuana and the “war on drugs,” but typically respond with letters to
the editor, espousing views in favour of legalization. Recently, in his newspaper column, MP Colin Mayes
voiced his concerns relating to marijuana use and the legalization
debate. Not surprisingly, the letters soon followed, criticizing the MP
for his questionable background sources and his knowledge of cannabis
use, a subject Mayes himself admitted to not being an expert on. What is kind of surprising is the response the column has elicited from Sicamous. Well, in particular, the respondents. The News
has received two letters from individuals who could easily be called
respected elders in the community. To our knowledge, neither of these
writers has a personal, pro-pot agenda, nor are they guided by partisan
ideology on this matter. Instead, their stand appears to be driven by
historical precedence and common sense: that past prohibitions proved a
failure, and decriminalizing a profitable substance reduces pot-related
crime (though certainly not eliminate it), while giving the
powers-that-be a new revenue generator. Interestingly, John McKay, a Republican and the
former U.S. attorney who prosecuted B.C. marijuana activist Marc Emery,
has since joined the ranks of former police and legal experts to state
the war on marijuana is a bust, that the “criminal prohibition of
marijuana is a complete failure.” McKay argues marijuana, like alcohol,
should be sold to adults by the state, which in turn would be a boon to
government coffers. Perhaps our elected officials should take heed of
this common-sense approach – support a failed war and laws that
inadvertently propagate organized, and occasionally violent, crime, or
generate needed revenue while cutting some of the backlog of our clogged
court system.
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Don Quixote Note: Colin Mayes M.P. article on marijuana can be found here.
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