MARIJUANA: UNUSUAL, YES, BUT FAR FROM HARMFUL

Canada's Policy of Prohibition Criminalizes Unconventional Thought

In Canada today, marijuana use and its perceived danger to society is
considered a legal issue. But history reveals that marijuana
prohibition isn't really about the effects of THC.

In 1937, the United States began prohibiting the plant as an excuse
to repatriate illegal Mexican immigrants. Since so many used and sold
the drug, prohibition legitimized the deportation of these people.
Canada, swayed by the American rhetoric of fear (a proud tradition we
continue to this day), followed suit and began arresting users.

Considering the seedy origins of this prohibitionist approach, I'd
rather turn to a more personal question: what exactly is it about pot
that legislators and citizens find so harmful?

For some, it is wrong for the simple fact that it is illegal. A
common counter to this is that tobacco and alcohol are legal yet
these drugs are more fatal and cause more health problems. Still,
some challenge this with fanatical fabrications about teens
developing schizophrenia from smoking pot or people developing lung
cancer from it. These charges lack scientific weight. Nevertheless,
some legitimate research has come out on the harmful effects of weed.

In BBC's Cannabis: The Evil Weed?, studies performed on "adolescent"
mice who received THC revealed memory deficits lasting into
adulthood. The study concluded these mice were analogous to teens 15
or younger who smoke cannabis. The moral: drugs are bad for the
developing brain.

But we already knew this. We don't sell cigarettes or alcohol to
kids, nor should we sell them weed. But from what I've seen,
marijuana is not stigmatized out of health concerns. Mostly, people
scorn marijuana for being, for lack of a better term, weird.

Pot encourages unusual thinking; not violent, not harmful, but
certainly not normal. It is a drug that can create a sense of
commonality and humanity, and the powers that be rightfully recognize
that a peaceful hippie with non-conformist thinking poses far more of
a threat to the maintenance of their power than an obedient,
anti-marijuana Canadian citizen.

Similarly, as a party drug, pot seems an odd choice. While it might
turn you on to some obscure, bizarre rock music, smoking marijuana
won't exactly have you grinding with that hot chick or dude you
totally want to bone. At least not in the way, say, alcohol or other
recreational drugs might. Hence, the stigma of marijuana is not so
much about bodily harm, rather the moral relativism of our culture
versus another.

A few months ago my friend was thrown out of his parent's house
because he's a pot smoker. As a belated Christmas gift, the same
thing just happened to me. My morality was not consistent with my
parents' Christian one, so they did what any good Christian would do:
threw their son into the street.

Still, I was dumbfounded when the big confrontation came. I was taken
aback by the language they used -- it seemed to suggest that most of
what they hated about weed was it's weirdness. My mom told me "Your
room smells like weed," as if the very smell of weed were wrong or
evil somehow. She continued, "Weed makes you dysfunctional," to which
I replied that I have a 70 per cent average in university -- and
wasn't that functional enough? Reading between the lines, I knew what
she really meant: marijuana makes you different, puts you on a
different plane of thought from the "functional" non-smokers of society.

But I realize my plight is petty, compared to the many serving time
for smoking or selling weed. As many as 20 million Americans have
been arrested, convicted and incarcerated for use of marijuana. It is
not a stretch to presume that many of these "felons" weren't harming
anyone when they got busted - because as a general rule, stoned
people don't even have the energy to commit violent crimes. And so it
seems people are being arrested not as a precautionary measure to
protect society from collapse, but for possessing and using a
substance deemed unnatural, for spending the afternoon listening to
Pink Floyd instead of shopping at Wal-Mart (like real Americans do).

Although marijuana is currently illegal in Canada, in practice it is
largely tolerated in small quantities. Thankfully, this typically
translates into fines instead of prison terms for those arrested on
charges of possessing or trafficking the substance. However,
prohibitionists -- that is, the Conservative Party of Canada, along
with the support of the Liberals -- are pushing for more draconian
measures. Bill S-10, if passed, would introduce mandatory minimum
prison sentences for the sale of cannabis.

In stark opposition, the Green Party of Canada, alongside provincial
marijuana parties, continue to push for full legalization of cannabis use.

Despite these parties' meager political power, their cause is well
supported. A 2009 Angus Reid poll found that 53 per cent of Canadians
agree with the statement "The use of marijuana should be legalized."

For the 47 per cent in opposition, ask yourself: what is it about
legalization that would negatively impact our country? Perhaps you
believe that more people will become potheads -- and you're probably
right. Most people feel comfortable using a substances if their
culture deems it right. In 1930s America -- during alcohol's
prohibition era -- marijuana remained perfectly legal. It was sold
like cigarettes in jazz clubs, markets and pharmacies, and not
surprisingly, the drug became quite popular in that time.

While the decision to smoke or withhold from smoking marijuana should
be a personal choice, prohibiting the substance takes away such
liberty. The current system is not only haphazard, but sends a
dangerous, dichotomizing message to the public: that all currently
illegal drugs are bad, and all presently legal drugs are alright.

Ask yourself -- who knows your body better: you or Canadian legislators?