Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2012
Source: Gravenhurst Banner (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Gravenhurst Banner
Contact:  http://www.gravenhurstbanner.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4780
Author: Russell Barth

MEDIA CAMPAIGN IS AGAINST MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

Re: Liberals get it right with promise to legalize marijuana 
(Gravenhurst Banner, Feb. 1, 2012)

As someone who has been up to his eyeballs in pot activism for nine 
years, I would classify this Liberal vote to legalize pot as nothing 
more than a bamboozle. The delegates did the right thing, but the 
party will not.

Not one single Liberal candidate has the intelligence or the guts to 
campaign on this issue, because not one single Liberal candidate has 
the intelligence or the guts to explain to a voter what, exactly, 
"marijuana legalization" would even look like.

Ask one and see. They don't want to discuss the issue because they 
quickly find themselves in a conversational quagmire that they can't 
get out of.

The media will also not let them campaign on this issue, as the 
media, in general, has a well-established and long-standing anti-pot 
and pro-police bias. The coverage recently of the "pot not as bad as 
tobacco" study is a perfect example of that.

The media continues to let people lie about the supposed dangers of 
pot (already debunked by science and history), and gives the 
(political) right a free ride when they talk wild hyperbole.

I am 42 years old and I don't think I will ever see legalized pot in 
Canada - and I blame the media. If legal pot ever does come, it won't 
come through Parliament; it will come the same way same-sex marriage, 
abortion and medical marijuana became legal: through the courts.

But then, there have already been seven court rulings that have 
effectively shot down the prohibition on pot, but the cops, the media 
and other judges simply ignore those rulings, and busts increase by 
10,000 every year.

So, really, I see little-to-no hope here.

Russell Barth

Nepean
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom