[Wamvan] Fwd: [dnc-board] Stop enabling drug use, stop using drugs

[Tami Starlight]

A stab at Vandu.....

and many, many others.......

this actually is more than half of the mindset of unceded coast salish
territory/the lower mainland.

tami starlight


http://www.theprovince.com/news/Stop+enabling+drug+stop+using+drugs/6168434/story.html





The fact that four former B.C. chief law officers have added their voices
to the call for marijuana decriminalization doesn't cut any ice with me.

It's easy to come out in favour of something now so politically correct
that to argue against it in any way immediately gets one branded as a
redneck or a Republican, which is the kiss of death in these left- lurching
parts.

The question that really has to be asked is why Ujjal Dosanjh, Geoff Plant,
Colin Gabelmann and Graeme Bowbrick didn't speak out in favour of a legal
market for marijuana while they served as attorneys-general from 1991 to
2005.

In fact, I'm getting a little tired of the habit of former Vancouver
may-ors and other headline-addicted exofficials only saying what they
really mean when they're out of office - when it's politically safe to do
so.

Myself, I favour pot legalization. And I don't think the cops should be
hounding pot smokers; they've got better things to do with their time.

However, I don't view the drug as some kind of divine weed or think it's
anywhere near as harmless as the pro-pot crusaders would have you believe.
And I certainly don't think one should be allowed to drive while stoned.

Evidence appears to be mounting that regular marijuana use increases the
chances that a teenager will develop psychosis or schizophrenia. And a
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study suggests its use by moms
during pregnancy can affect children's later intellectual development.

All this helps explain why I am happy that Beatle Paul McCartney - first
turned on to pot by Bob Dylan in the mid-'60s - now says he's given up
marijuana so he can be a better parent to Beatrice, his eight-year-old
daughter.

"I did a lot, and it was enough. I smoked my share," he told Rolling Stone
magazine. "When you're bringing up a youngster, your sense of
responsibility does kick in. Enough's enough - you just don't seem to think
it's necessary."

Yes, enough is enough. And I think it high time we realized that, whether
we're talking about marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin or highly addictive
prescription drugs such as OxyContin - or an unholy mix of them - that we
in the Lower Main-land have a huge drug problem.

It's one that legalization alone will not solve. And it's one that, to a
great degree, has been fuelled by the North-American-wide obsession with
drug-using celebrities such as Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. For
years, it's been socially and politically cool to enable drug use - and
have taxpayers pump thou-sands of dollars into groups such as the Vancouver
Area Network of Drug Users that push drug dependency as a viable lifestyle.

Those hard-earned dollars, in my view, would be far better spent promoting
the anti-drug message of author/addict William S. Burroughs: "Anything that
can be done chemically can be done by other means."

Drugs and drug legalization are the easy way out. The hard part is finding
ways to live without using drugs as a crutch, and to finally realize your
full human potential.

That's the message those four ex-attorneys-general should be delivering.


Read more:
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Stop+enabling+drug+stop+using+drugs/6168434/story.html#ixzz1mfkNh6eP



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