To the editor:
Bonnie Grootenboer’s letter from Feb. 4 merely repeats all the old saws about marijuana, saws that have been refuted time and again.
This sort of stuff was all shown to be false as far back as the Canadian government’s own Le Dain commission way back in the 1970s.
Of course, the public wasn’t willing to hear the truth then, just as (it appears) people are unwilling to hear the truth now.
The simple truth is that marijuana is not dangerous, but tobacco and alcohol are and both these substances are legal.
The difference is, that in the case of alcohol and tobacco, people who misuse them are treated as patients, while people who misuse narcotics or controlled substances are treated as criminals. That’s an injustice. And it is an injustice which the federal Conservative party, in a cynical bid to gain power, is willing to continue.
Shame on them, and shame on those who would support them in this triumph of ideology over fact.
Tony Lariviere,
Thunder Bay
Bonnie Grootenboer’s letter from Feb. 4 merely repeats all the old saws about marijuana, saws that have been refuted time and again.
This sort of stuff was all shown to be false as far back as the Canadian government’s own Le Dain commission way back in the 1970s.
Of course, the public wasn’t willing to hear the truth then, just as (it appears) people are unwilling to hear the truth now.
The simple truth is that marijuana is not dangerous, but tobacco and alcohol are and both these substances are legal.
The difference is, that in the case of alcohol and tobacco, people who misuse them are treated as patients, while people who misuse narcotics or controlled substances are treated as criminals. That’s an injustice. And it is an injustice which the federal Conservative party, in a cynical bid to gain power, is willing to continue.
Shame on them, and shame on those who would support them in this triumph of ideology over fact.
Tony Lariviere,
Thunder Bay
