Dear editor,
I survived the drug culture beginning in the ’60s and ’70s and count myself extremely fortunate to have escaped with most of my faculties. And, no, I’m not a recovering addict – anything but. I’ve also heard all the ‘potaganda’ puffed out by the pro-pot population for the last 30 years or so.
Let’s talk ‘gateway’ drug for a minute. During the years I indulged, almost everyone I knew who went to pot, so to speak, invariably indulged in other drugs of the day; namely mescaline, LSD, MDA and the like. It all starts with pot. The quest for an ever-better high is irresistible.
On a more philosophical note, legalization of pot will never get rid of illegal pot. In fact, I believe the underground producers, if they’re smart, (and I think they are) have the capability to keep lowering their price to the point legal sellers can’t stay in business. It then makes me wonder how to keep rock-bottom priced pot out of the hands of children. We’ll see.
I don’t envy law enforcement on this issue either. Like cigarettes and coffee, pot and booze go hand in hand. So when talking pot they’ll always have to consider more than one drug. And on the drugged driving issue, I’d like to report that several times lately on the Nanaimo Parkway we’ve been subject to gouts of marijuana smoke sucked into our car by the AC. Happy motoring.
In closing, in the past, the response to irrational statements or arguments by an inebriated person, was, ‘Ignore it, its just the liquor talking.’ I can’t help thinking all this pro-pot chatter is ‘just the dope talking;’ forming the underlying murmur of a drug-addled nation.
Robert Anderson,
Nanaimo
