EDITOR,
Re. "Bill enjoys broad-based support," Letters, The Chief, Dec. 17.
I noticed first that Weston refers to me as a "licensed drug user" - as opposed to "Licensed Medical Marijuana User" - in an effort to discredit everything I have said or will say. This is a typical prohibitionist tactic, implying that because I use marijuana as prescribed by my doctor, everything I say is nonsense. This is not historically, medically, or scientifically accurate, but Weston uses this disgraceful and discriminatory tactic because he knows that what I say can be proven, so he has to "shoot the messenger." Notice also that he makes sure to point out that I am from Ontario, as if I am some sort of "outsider" who will not be affected by this bill.
That said, the support of an uninformed public and a bunch of cops and politicians who stand to benefit from a bill's passage does not make the bill a good one.
I challenge any MP - any person, in fact - to show any historical or scientific evidence to support the Tory position that more prohibition will help things. Where is the evidence? Where, and when in history, has prohibition ever been successful? The Tories have been asked by the media and the opposition repeatedly to show any evidence that mandatory minimum sentences, for example, actually work, and they simply don't answer the questions. They just keep on with their talking points.
As for the Member's claim that the bill was "shaped by constituents," all informed people know that absolutely nothing that happens in the Tory party happens independently of Harper. Just like when mom and dad put "From Santa" on a present they actually bought, this bill is a Harper Bill, and informed people know it. Repeating a lie over and over again might make more people believe it, but it still doesn't make it any more true. Weston's myopic, punishment-fetishist voter base might swallow that tripe, but informed people don't.
Even if this bill were crafted by consensus, we have seen many Tory "tough" on crime bills that are nothing but ideological and counterproductive. Clearly, everyone involved in the crafting of this legislation dismissed evidence that countered their prohibitionist agenda, and went with the "firm hand" approach. Ideology over facts is a Tory mainstay.
John Weston is a fan of prohibition, which has a century-long history of subsidizing organized crime, endangering the public, and eroding rights. His party wants to build 12 new jails and fill them with pot growers, brownie-bakers and the mentally ill.
I support regulating and taxing all drugs like alcohol so they, and society, could be safer than they are now. I have a realistic and historically coherent view of drug use and drug laws, based on fact and science. Weston is pushing a law that he knows will further empower gangsters and erode rights for everyone else. And yet I am being portrayed as the bad guy.
So just because my informed position goes against the position of misinformed people who hold strong opinions that are not based in any fact, history, or science, does not make my position wrong - just unpopular.
Weston's bill will help the gangsters. He can deny it all he wants, but it is still a fact.
Russell Barth
Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User
Drug Reform Analyst and Consultant
Educators for Sensible Drug Policy
Nepean, Ont.
