Pubdate: Wed, 16 Mar 2005
Source: St. Albert Gazette (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 St. Albert Gazette
Contact:  http://www.stalbertgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2919
Author: Richard G. Nobert

MARIJUANA PROHIBITION PLAYED A BIG ROLE IN THE DEATH OF OUR MOUNTIES IN 
MAYERTHORPE, BUT POT AND HASH ARE LESS HARMFUL THAN ALCOHOL

Prohibition was a failure, and it's a failure once again. Were it not for 
the stupid prohibition of marijuana, four good RCMP officers would not have 
died.

About 80 years ago, Alberta had a prohibition on alcohol. But it didn't 
work. Albertans had moonshine stills and home brew everywhere. The majority 
wanted to drink and did so illegally, until the government smartened up and 
made liquor legal once again. Today, the Alberta and federal governments 
make billions of dollars on liquor taxes. That's a far more intelligent 
idea than prohibition.

The long-term effects of booze can be deadly. I saw an alcoholic man dying 
because his kidneys had been destroyed by booze. Months before he died, he 
was on a dialysis machine and he had the shakes so much, he could hardly 
get a spoonful of soup to his mouth without spilling most of it. How many 
marriages have been destroyed because of booze? How many people have died 
and are still dying, because of booze? However, booze is legal, but pot is not.

Have you ever heard of anyone dying because of marijuana? You should have. 
Four Mounties got killed on Thursday, March 3, when trying to prohibit a 
psycho from growing the stuff near Rochfort Bridge.

The saddest part of it all is that they died in vain. For every marijuana 
growing operation the police find, two more start up some place else. Pot 
prohibition is a losing battle. Only a small percentage of marijuana 
growing operations are being discovered and each year billions of dollars 
are going to criminals instead of law-abiding people, as in the case of the 
now unprohibited sales of liquor.

An experienced psychiatrist once told me that if he had his way, pot and 
hash would be legal, but booze would not. He based his answer on the 
problems he's had to deal with in trying to help out various kinds of 
patients. We know that marijuana may now be used as a prescribed drug to 
help ease pain and other medical problems. One man in the Gibbons area 
suffered severe arthritic pain, but can now walk without crutches because 
of the prescribed marijuana pills he's allowed to take. That sounds pretty 
good to me.

The time has come to put an end to the prohibition of marijuana. I'm 64, 
and I have smoked of what I speak.

Richard G. Nobert

Morinville 
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