cannabisnews.com: One Toke Shouldn't Be Over the Line One Toke Shouldn't Be Over the Line Posted by CN Staff on August 26, 2002 at 21:07:27 PT By Shannon Buckley Source: Hamilton Spectator The case for legalizing pot has been made so many times before, it's hardly worth going over again -- except that Canada seems to be getting quite close to doing so. The reasons we, as a society, have for keeping marijuana illegal are considerably more immoral, unethical and discriminatory than we have for legalizing the use of marijuana (medicinal or otherwise).Historically speaking, marijuana gained its illicit status because of who smoked it, not because of any of its pleasure-inducing properties. It isn't the only drug that suffered such a fate. In Canada, the smoking of opium was deemed illegal while, curiously, opium could still legally be taken in other ways. Who smoked opium? The Chinese.The legal history of marijuana isn't that much different. The laws that governed the use of marijuana were basically discriminatory.If you smoke marijuana today you are a criminal, unless you are using it for medicinal reasons and you have a government-issued card saying so. I don't know what sort of hoops a person needs to jump through in order to obtain such a card. And I'm still unclear on how said card-carrying pot smoker gets his/her supply legally. To the best of my knowledge, the government-operated marijuana-growing facility has yet to ship out any of its produce.I guess the card carriers are expected to grow their own stash. There is a rather pricey refrigerator-sized hydroponic growing device currently for sale to make the gardening part slightly easier. Still, there's the getting-the-seed problem. And then learning how to get the stuff to grow. Not everyone has a green thumb.It sounds like a lot to ask of a sick person, particularly when the pharmaceutical companies are happy to market their over-priced, internal-bleeding-causing, dizziness-causing, nausea-inducing pain killers.Is it not unethical to allow chronically ill medicinal marijuana users to risk a criminal record trying to acquire the pain killer they need while we allow drug companies to continue marketing drugs they know do more harm than good? Laws have very little to do with what is right or wrong -- especially consensual crimes, those that affect no one but those willingly engaging in the act. Smoking pot (or partaking of any other illicit recreational drug for that matter) is one of many examples of the absurdity of the consensual crime.I hear about a marijuana-related crime once a month at the very least. Considering the number of houses retrofitted into viable indoor marijuana farms, there must be a huge market for the drug.So why is pot smoking still a crime? Moral reasons? I'm not convinced. If we can drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes legally -- both of which cost our society millions of dollars in health care -- why not marijuana? No law-maker can justify keeping marijuana illegal on moral grounds. Otherwise we'd have to make all tobacco and alcohol illegal. Perhaps that isn't a bad idea, but it won't be done. Too much money would be lost from the system if we did that. Where are our morals now?The systems in place that depend upon certain drugs remaining illegal would incur incredible economic losses. The jails would empty out, a few lawyers would lose out, and the various police forces would lose out. Perhaps some of that could be recouped from the revenues gained from legal marijuana along with some jobs. Tourism might increase.Canada could be the Holland of North America. This could be done if Canada has the nerve to make money using the appetite for drugs rather than the appetite for a war against drugs. Canada needs to decide how many casualties the war on drugs really leaves versus the other more humane (if somewhat "immoral") choice of giving up the war altogether.Shannon Buckley has lived in Hamilton for almost 10 years. She currently works in a medical library. Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON) Author: Shannon BuckleyPublished: August 14, 2002Copyright: The Hamilton Spectator 2002Contact: letters hamiltonspectator.com Website: http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/ Related Articles:Northern Neighbors Pot Policy Irks Drug Warriorshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13574.shtmlWhy on Earth is Marijuana Still Illegal? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13755.shtml Is Canada's Tourism Going to Pot? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13647.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by TroutMask on August 27, 2002 at 06:46:08 PT Follow the Dominoes... "Canada could be the Holland of North America."Exactly! Then North America will become the Holland of North America.-TM [ Post Comment ] Post Comment