Pubdate: Sat, 08 May 2010 Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS) Copyright: 2010 The Halifax Herald Limited Contact: http://thechronicleherald.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180 Author: Jane MacDonald BONEHEAD MOVE For the life of me, I can't figure out what the Harper government hopes to achieve with sentencing people who grow a few of their own marijuana plants to jail time. Isn't that making criminals out of ordinary citizens? And yes, ordinary citizens smoke pot. You have got to think that the people growing small amounts are only growing for personal use so they don't have to go to drug dealers. This government doesn't look at any stats or take into account any research. Excuse me, it did fund one research project on the subject. They did research into whether pot triggers psychosis, and found that it did. What they didn't tell you was that it is also triggered by alcohol, stress and a number of other things. It seems the rest of the world, even the U.S. is relaxing pot laws, but not our born-again Christian government. God must have told Stephen Harper that pot is bad. I think He probably looked down and said, "These people are much too stressed and violent; I will give them pot to relax them." Whatever the reason, it is a bonehead move that forces people to get their pot from dealers, therefore making the criminal element richer and more powerful. Jane MacDonald, West Chezzetcook - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake