LIBERAL BAMBOOZLE

Re: Legalize weed, Grit delegates say (Jan. 16).

As someone who has been up to his eyeballs in pot activism for nine
years, I would classify this Liberal vote to legalize pot as a
bamboozle. The delegates did the right thing, but the party will not.

Not one single Liberal candidate has the intelligence or the guts to
campaign on this issue because not one single Liberal candidate has
the intelligence or the guts to explain to a voter what, exactly,
"marijuana legalization" would even look like! (Ask one and see.)

The media will not let them campaign on this issue, as the media --
in general -- have a well-established and long-standing anti-pot and
pro-police bias. The coverage last week of the "pot not as bad as
tobacco" study is a perfect example of that.

The media continue to let people lie about the supposed dangers of
pot (already debunked by science and history), and give the right a
free ride when they talk wild hyperbole.

I am 42 and I don't think I will ever see legalized pot in Canada --
and I blame the media. If legal pot ever comes, it won't come through
Parliament; it will come the same way same-sex marriage, abortion and
medical marijuana became legal: through the courts.

But, then, there have already been seven court rulings that have
effectively shot down the prohibition on pot, but the cops, the media
and other judges simply ignore those rulings, and busts increase by
10,000 every year.

RUSSELL BARTH

Nepean, Ont.