MARIJUANA JOINTS TWISTED THE DIRECTION OF REVOLUTION

Big Losers Attracted As Drugs Took Hold

Before Canadians decide to follow Captain Canada over the precipice
to decriminalizing cannabis sativa, or wacko weed, let's examine how
the practice of smoking "grass" became a commonplace event among the
middle class.

I was young enough to have been a participant in the social
revolution of the '70s, and while marijuana was a safe alternative to
booze, many people didn't stop there.

We were all led quite willingly down the garden path by the
counterculture gurus of our time. Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, Allen
Ginsberg, the Chicago Seven, and Timothy Leary politicized our
thoughts while we grooved to the sounds of the Beatles, Bob Dylan,
Joni Mitchell, the Mamas and the Papas, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Butterfly
and Buffalo Springfield.

We continued to experiment, which usually meant that you went on to
try hashish, mescaline, opium and LSD.

Now don't get me wrong, there were a lot of level-headed, really
interesting characters in the movement who brought their very own
brand of love and understanding to it, but it was also a magnet for
every loser imaginable.

The easy access to drugs, courtesy of the drug labs that seemed to
sprout up like mushrooms, only served to help these misfits drift a
little farther out on the fringes of mainstream society.

Heroin and speed freaks were everywhere, a living testament to how
quickly they made addicts of their users. Now North Americans are
faced with the growing epidemic of crack cocaine, fuelled by the
greedy Colombian drug cartels, who think nothing of murdering anyone
who gets in their way of making another couple of million dollars.
And just imagine, all that just from taking a few innocent puffs of a
harmless plant some 30 years ago.

William Eady,

Edmonton