LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO COURT

It's no wonder Ted Smith laughs and shakes his head when he calculates that
his arrest for trafficking in marijuana has already cost taxpayers at least
$5,000.

It's hard not to laugh along with him.

The whole situation would side-splitting hilarious if the actions of local
law enforcement weren't so totally inane and misguided.

The arrest and charge of trafficking for passing a pot joint are yet another
example of a war on drugs being fought without any common sense, without any
perspective and apparently without any end.

Smith is no master criminal.

He told Victoria city council and then mayor Bob Cross (who also chaired the
Victoria police board at the time) what he was doing years ago.

He sells pot to people suffering from debilitating diseases.

He has done so openly and without regret for the past five years.

But, in the blinkered eyes of the Canadian government, Smith is a lawbreaker
and one assumes that in the eyes of UVic security, Smith and the UVic
Hempology 101 Society were trouble with a capital T.

After all, the marijuana advocates gathered every week to smoke pot at the
fountain outside the McPherson Library, doubtless creating a totally
untenable situation and frightening the sensitive ducks on campus, unlike
inebriated students stumbling out of Felicita's or Vertigo no doubt.

Get real.

One has to wonder what judge will send Smith to jail.

One has to wonder when this country will address marijuana in a sensible
way.

It's time to move on.