LETTER: Pot use defended
By Contributor
To The Editor, RE: Grand Forks, Nelson – the pot lobby is all around us
“Those contentions are made meaningless, though, by the fact that THC is readily available in pill form by prescription.”
This myth – this outright lie – is one of the main blocks towards sensible drug policy in Canada.
1) Cesamet and Marinol have NO actual cannabis in them. They are synthetic mimics of cannabis-type chemicals, but no actual pot is contained. The ONLY drug that has actual cannabis is Sativex – a sub-lingual spray which has proven disappointing.
2) Cannabis has a lot more than just THC. It has CBD’s which are particularly important to epileptics. The synergistic way these elements work is not fully understood, due to a lack of research.
3) Smoking, though dirty, is a good way to titrate dose and manage symptoms quickly. Pot can be eaten, vaporized, applied as a topical ointment, or inserted as a suppository.
4) Portugal, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands (where pot is legal or close to it) all have lower pot use rates, lower hard drug use rates, and lower crime rates than Canada.
5) Alcohol and tobacco remain legal because a prohibition on them would cause yet another Illicit Market to emerge and flourish.
If we accept that the government can tell us what we can do with our own bodies then we must accept their ownership. That means the government owns us all – like pets, cattle, or slaves – and that we have only the rights that they grant. Anyone willing to accept that deserves no rights.
Legalizing pot would also save us a billion dollars a year in cops, courts, and cages, and generate an additional $3 billion in annual tax revenue. Recent science also shows how marijuana fights cancer, as well as parkinson’s, alzheimer’s ADHD, PTSD, and H1N1.
www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20071226/pot-slows-cancer-in-test-tube
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july132…_sc_7-13-09.php
So if thwarting gangsters and restoring our natural rights to choose are not reason enough to legalize pot, then curing cancer should be!
Russell Barth
Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User
Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis
(PAIDOC)www.paidoc.org
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