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.
