cannabisnews.com: High Time for Law Change High Time for Law Change Posted by CN Staff on December 15, 2002 at 07:55:35 PT By Licia Corbella -- Calgary Sun Source: Calgary Sun It's been 18 years and a bit since I stopped smoking dope. I quit on Oct. 21, 1984, the day I flushed hundreds of dollars of very high quality marijuana and cocaine down the toilet and turned my life over to Jesus Christ. But that's another story. Prior to that life-transforming day, drugs were a large part of my life. Indeed, drugs were a daily part of my life. I first smoked marijuana when I was 14 while still an elite athlete and Canadian record holder in several swimming events. But it wasn't until I quit swimming in late 1979 after the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics that I turned to drugs with the same kind of gusto I put into training. In other words, like most things I do, I did drugs wholeheartedly. I became a cannabis connoisseur -- a ganja gourmet, if you will -- and somewhat of a smoking snob. Being from Vancouver and accustomed to smoking only buds -- or the flowers of marijuana, grown by some true horticultural geniuses, I would sniff in derision at the offerings of some pot peasant from Ontario with their bag of twiggy, seedy dried out leaf. In contrast, the stuff my friends and I smoked was EXTREMELY potent and pungent. It was so packed with the active ingredient THC, that one or two puffs of the stuff would be enough for a buzz and a whole joint would practically guarantee that you wouldn't be going any place -- let alone moving -- for the next 20 minutes. Which is why I was rather shocked when the Common's committee on the non-medical use of drugs released its report Thursday recommending that possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana be considered simple possession. After all, 30 grams of the stuff I used to smoke could incapacitate 200 people. But I suppose, 30 grams of the Ontario stuff would barely get one person stoned. Needless to say, I am no longer a user or a fan of illicit drugs. I have too many friends who have ruined once very promising lives with drugs (other than marijuana) and I am so glad, and grateful to God, that I only partook for five years and then went on to really experience and enjoy life. However, when I heard that the committee recommended that marijuana be decriminalized and read that our former tokin' Justice Minister Martin Cauchon plans to implement that recommendation sometime in the new year, I was pleased. Criminalizing pot smokers has been a costly waste of police and court resources, not to mention hypocritical, since many of us have met cops who smoke marijuana themselves. It's believed that some $1.5 billion will be saved as a result of decriminalization. That's not including the money the government will be raking in on fines of those 200,000 people annually caught with less than 30 grams of pot. But the main reason I'm most happy is for the sick and dying people I know who use marijuana as medicine. People like Grant Krieger -- Calgary's foremost medicinal marijuana minstrel -- who has been relentlessly pursued and prosecuted by police simply for trying to provide himself and other multiple sclerosis sufferers like him with the only medicine they say works. Even though the whole issue of medicinal marijuana was not dealt with in this report, it's only reasonable to assume that sick people with an exemption to possess marijuana will now be cut some further slack if they are found carrying more than 30 grams or have more than a few plants growing in their home. I now truly believe that marijuana is a miracle drug and was put on this planet not to make suburban kids high but to alleviate many serious ills. Krieger was turned on to marijuana after he attempted suicide when the spasms and pain of his multiple sclerosis -- not to mention his incapacity to move -- became too much. He tried marijuana -- something he once thought was bad and "only for lowlifes" and within a couple of weeks, not only had his spasms stopped, but he regained his ability to move, he folded up his wheelchair and has been a tireless cannabis crusader ever since. While marijuana will remain illegal under the new law expected in January, it's my hope that parliament will establish a new committee to deal with medical marijuana and that sooner rather than later, real medical trials will take place that will make it possible for sick people to get reliable and safe supplies of marijuana from a pharmacy. Multi-national pharmaceutical companies don't like the idea for obvious reasons, but I have met more than a dozen straight-laced, law abiding citizens who swear that the pharmaceuticals they took for a variety of ills -- including MS, chronic pain from car accidents, nausea from chemotherapy, or the pain of glaucoma -- were expensive, had terrible side effects and weren't particularly effective anyway. This committee should have made wide-sweeping recommendations to deal with the sick and dying first and then with recreational users next. Nevertheless, this report and this government's vow to decriminalize this relatively benign recreational plant and miracle medicine is one of the only good things the Jean Chretien government has done to date. It's not much of a legacy. But without it, the rest pretty much goes up in smoke. This report will not change my life one bit. But it is the right thing to do. I'll gladly take that. Her columns appear Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Note: Criminalizing pot smokers has been a costly and hypocritical waste. Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)Author: Licia Corbella -- Calgary SunPublished: December 15, 2002 Copyright: 2002 The Calgary SunContact: callet sunpub.comWebsite: http://www.fyicalgary.com/calsun.shtmlRelated Articles & Web Sites:Grant Kreiger Cannabis Researchhttp://gwkcannabisresearch.org/Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmUnder The Maple Leaf: Pot Politics http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14973.shtmlPot Penalties Out of Whack, MPs Say http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14963.shtmlCommittee To Recommend 30-Gram Pot Limit http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14951.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Post Comment