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Current Affairs 2006 - Letters (23 items)
| Nov 30, 2006 | PUB LTE: Kudos For Vote To Scrap Pot Prohibition Members of Saskatchewan's NDP made political history at their convention becoming Canada's first governing party to support a resolution to eliminate the prohibition on marijuana. Although this is a great first step, there is a long way to go before state-sponsored discrimination against Saskatchewan cannabis users ends.
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| Sep 26, 2006 | Editorial: Potheads May Not Have Thought This One t seems that every time we carry any kind of drug awareness article in the paper we receive a flood of letters to the editor from people keen to tell us that drugs aren't so bad at all.
There seems to be a group of people who spend their lives combing the Internet looking for such stories as an opportunity to argue their case that marijuana should be legalized.
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| Aug 30, 2006 | RCMP Retract 'Pound For Pound' Assertion Police made an honest mistake by telling The Reminder that marijuana is sometimes traded pound for pound with cocaine, according to the RCMP National Headquarters.
Paul Nadeau, the Mounties' national drug enforcement director, said police have no evidence to support this recently-reported "urban myth."
"Personally, I have never heard of one instance where we've been able to corroborate that," he said from his Ottawa office.
Nadeau said the fallacy is so widespread that it's believed by criminals, lawyers and some of the many thousands of police officers - -- RCMP and otherwise -- across the nation....The pound-for-pound statement was included as part of an Aug. 9 Reminder article outlining how today's marijuana is much more potent - -- and of greater concern to police -- than the pot of yesteryear.
Within days of the story running, members of the pro-marijuana lobby from across Canada fired off e-mails and letters to the editor ridiculing the claim. They read the article online.
Police propaganda gets trounced - thanks to the efforts of many letter writers. It would be so much easier to separate fact from fiction if all media followed up on the dubious claims of reefer madness spewed into the "news", and got retractions from police and politicians. |
| Aug 29, 2006 | PUB LTE: Holy Smoke Bust Hits On Bigger Issue
It is my belief that the call to investigate Holy Smoke came from on high and is closely associated to the federal conservative government ( Prime Minister Steve Harper ) and intervention from the D.E.A. ( United States ). ...
If you are a taxpayer in the City of Nelson you are paying for the police force, and in turn are also a director of policing policy. Contact your city councillors, mayor, police force, police board, member of the legislative assembly ( MLA ) and member of parliament if you wish to have a say in the way police operate.
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| Aug 28, 2006 | PUB LTE: Know Ed Before You Judge Him The ironic thing about all this is my father - you see my father is Rev. Ed DeVries, I am his son and my name is Jason DeVries - I am not afraid nor am I ashamed to admit who I or my father is because I am proud that he is able to come forth and be who he is without having to hide or shy away. t was my father who gave me my morals and instilled my values at a young age. My father taught me about choice. He is not a stupid man by far, and has a wealth of information on a range of subjects and knows what the benefits of marijuana are.
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| Aug 18, 2006 | PUB LTE: Marijuana Party Candidate Clarifies Position To the readers, and in particular the residents of Igloolik, I feel I must write in response to the attention being given to my life recently and publicly.
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| Aug 16, 2006 | PUB LTE: Teen Puzzled By Police Action Open letter for Nelson City Police Detective Sgt. Steve Bank. ...I am a 16-year-old girl and have lived in Nelson for a total of 11 years... In the article in the Nelson Daily News, you said that "it is not tolerated. The Holy Smoke - their ( alleged ) activity is not tolerated by the police or frankly by the people in the community." How can you speak for the people of the community? I suggest that you check the public opinion before you make such a statement that is obviously not supported by the entire population of Nelson
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| Aug 11, 2006 | PUB LTE: Reducing Accidents - Pot Is Not The Real Claiming that the driver might have been impaired on marijuana is a nebulous assertion [Grieving mom seeks change, July 28, Langley Advance], and the fact that charges related to the claim were dropped suggests that it's very likely that marijuana impairment may have had nothing to do with the accident.
Hundreds of thousands of people drive every day while impaired by legal prescription drugs, but when they are involved in fatal accidents, their legal drug use is not highlighted in the media.
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| Aug 8, 2006 | PUB LTE: Pot Perspectives POT PERSPECTIVES
If there was any reason to doubt that the United Nations has become little more than an irrelevant toady to special interests, Antonio Maria Costa's harum-scarum opinion piece equating marijuana with cocaine and heroin laid all of that to rest. Surely he must be on drugs or something.
David Coates, Toronto
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v06/n1027/a02.html |
| Aug 1, 2006 | PUB LTE: Getting High As a Side Effect of Marijuana Use There is no doubt about pot making people "feel" better, aside from any biochemical mechanism between human and medicine. That softening of symptoms and mild euphoria makes all the difference sometimes. ...Getting high for the sake of getting high is called recreational use, but getting high because it is a side effect of medicinal cannabis use is something entirely different. That high is the measure of the medicine's potency, and is necessary for correct titration of dose.
If one has weak pot, they need to use more. If the pot is very potent, then they only need a little. The way to tell the difference is when the high arrives. That high is the body's way of saying "OK, that's enough for now."
Russell Barth
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| Jul 21, 2006 | PUB LTE: Come Out Of The Closet, Pot Smokers Dear editor,
I was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana recently. It seems the right time to come out publicly for legalization, and I hope to persuade you to do the same.
I have been smoking marijuana for 30-plus years -- it is my choice for relaxation and enjoyment. I know plenty of people in our town also enjoy this choice. I believe this holds true for millions across our country.
Aren't we all tired of having to "hide" and deny our use in public because of outdated and senseless laws? Surely it is time to bury the b.s. and get marijuana legalized.
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| Mar 20, 2006 | PUB LTE: Don't Blame US Canadians should be incensed that the U.S. government is pointing fingers at us and other countries as the cause of its drug problems. The spread of disease, death, violence and organized crime is a consequence of prohibitionist drug policies that the U.S. government originally strong-armed other countries into adopting.
Gillian Maxwell
Chair, Keeping the Door Open: Dialogues on Drug Use
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| Mar 20, 2006 | PUB LTE: Marijuana Not A Gateway To Harder Stuff The Czech Republic is the only nation in the world where adult citizens can legally use, possess and grow small quantities of marijuana. ( In the Netherlands, marijuana is quasi-legal -- not officially legal. )
The Czech overall drug arrest rate is one per 100,000 population. The United States' overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000 population.
The Czech robbery rate is two per 100,000 population. The United States' robbery rate is 145.9 per 100,000 population, according to the FBI. According to our drug war cheerleaders, tolerant marijuana laws cause people to use other, much more dangerous drugs, like meth and heroin. Obviously, this doesn't happen in the Czech Republic. Why not?
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| Mar 10, 2006 | PUB LTE: Seedy Situation SEEDY SITUATION
Montreal -- I was a little confused reading Charlie McKenzie's article on the RCMP marijuana-seed bust and I wasn't even high at the time ( Dopey RCMP Math -- March 9 ). Was the point that the RCMP should stop wasting its time trying to determine how much marijuana a bag of seeds would yield? Or was the point that the RCMP should stop wasting its time pandering to U.S. drug hysteria?
Haven't we all had enough of this silly prohibition, of clogging the court system and saddling people with criminal records? Weed is a wonderful, useful little plant. Our overworked police forces should be focusing on other things.
MICHAEL ASHBY director, National Pardon Centre
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| Feb 21, 2006 | PUB LTE: Legalize Marijuana For Adults As the leader of the world's largest organization of police, judges and other criminal justice professionals who oppose the policy of drug Prohibition, I'd like to echo letter writer Robert Sharpe.
Having the criminal justice system as the primary arm of public response to marijuana use is bad policy. The proposed law changes better mirror the common sense approach we use in response to the most addictive and dangerous drugs - alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals.
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| Feb 20, 2006 | PUB LTE: B.C. Bud Here To Stay B.C. BUD HERE TO STAY
So W.P. Kinsella and the supporters of Grow Watch think they are finally stamping out marijuana grow operations?
Not likely.
B.C. bud is here to stay, the demand and money associated with it are just too immense.
It's a shame Kinsella, Grow Watch members and the RCMP fail to realize they are helping gangs such as the Hells Angels rather than eradicating them.
Choosing to adopt these programs sends the organized crime syndicates laughing all the way to the bank.
Christopher Nichols,
Coquitlam
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| Feb 9, 2006 | PUB LTE: Pot Coverage One-Sided POT COVERAGE ONE-SIDED
I've been reading about the waste of taxpayers' money in the arrest of Tom Shapiro and family in the medical cannabis case in Regina.
Now The SP prints this rubbish about grow-ops causing damage to homes. Does this include all homes that have plants, or is it just homes with cannabis plants? How can a paper that says it abides with responsible reporting print such one-sided propaganda?
Ed Burwell
Saskatoon
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| Feb 8, 2006 | PUB LTE: Ignore The Reefer Madness GNORE THE REEFER MADNESS
Editor:
Re: Whatever happened to the pot debate? Thomas Barker, Barking at the Big Dog, Houston Today, Jan. 25.
Rather than continue to subsidize organized crime, Canadian policymakers should ignore the reefer madness hysteria of the U.S. government and instead to look their own Senate for guidance.
In the words of Senator Pierre Claude Nolin: "Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue."
Robert Sharpe
Washington, D.C.
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| Feb 7, 2006 | PUB LTE: Is The Cost Of War On Weed Worth The Price? Forty per cent of all Canadian 15 year olds admit to having used marijuana. It is a commodity that many Canadians want.
The United States Homeland Security Department is in the process of pouring over $1 billion into Bellingham to upgrade their land, sea and air surveillance of this sector of their border. In spite of the hundreds of cameras and remote controlled drones marijuana is flowing into their country. Local prices have almost doubled in the last year.
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| Feb 3, 2006 | LTE: Troubled By Youth's View Of Marijuana TROUBLED BY YOUTH'S VIEW OF MARIJUANA
As an educator and counsellor of teens, I have felt the need to write about the apparent acceptance, by many, of marijuana use as a harmless pastime. My need to write was heightened after observing student reactions to a recent all-candidates meeting and the student "practice" federal election held in area schools.
The Marijuana Party candidate received cheers, support and significant votes from many students.
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