legalize

The Daily News

 

After 40 years of failure in dealing with drug abuse as a criminal problem, it's time to listen to the experts and recognize it as a health issue. Two health policy groups based in this province have helped launched an international effort to tackle the damage done by drug abuse and addiction in a new way. The principle being advanced by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy is simple.

 

Using a scientific approach, determine what works to reduce the damage done to individuals and societies, and what doesn't. Then do those things that are effective and quit doing those that are ineffective -- or worse, destructive.

 

By: Chris Selley , National Post

 

Jamaican gangster and drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke, subject of a violent month-long manhunt in the slums of West Kingston, surrendered to authorities on Wednesday without a shot being fired. He happened to be dressed as a woman at the time, police gleefully announced, providing photo evidence — a darkly comic anticlimax to a senseless battle that killed 73 people and wounded 35 more. It’s no exaggeration to say that drug consumers in the world’s leading nations have blood on their hands. Their presidents and prime ministers have more.

 

The U.S. indictment against Coke — who may or may not be immediately extradited — makes fascinatingly grim reading. I was especially struck by this passage:

By Tony Spears and Amy Husser, Canwest News Service

 

As thousands of Canadians took to the streets last week to engage in some public puffing of marijuana for 4/20 -- the unofficial pot holiday -- the debate about decriminalizing the drug was still ablaze across this country.

 

An Angus Reid poll released this month suggests that a majority of Canadians --nearly 65% -- are in favour of legalizing marijuana

 

The evidence was certainly there in Winnipeg and Toronto, as hazy clouds hung over crowds of more than 1,000 people in both cities.

 

In Vancouver, an estimated 4,000 pot-smokers descended on the Vancouver Art Gallery to light up in public view.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided to ask the Internet what issue is most pressing to Canadians.

We have a chance to push marijuana legalization to the top of that list (It's currently #2 and #3). You don't have to be Canadian to participate, so please, wherever you're from, help us legalize marijuana in Canada.

Please, click here to vote for marijuana legalization! Let's make marijuana the #1 and #2 questions to Stephen Harper!

 

Take a close look at what you see: Toronto’s not too bad, all things considered, if only ... oh, come on; we are far better than that little line of hedges.

This city is one of the great glories of North America.

We are, however, in a state of flux. There is no wind in the world that does not cause our leaves to flutter; we came here, half of us, from someplace else.

Where is here?

I have no idea.

So many people come and go each year that we could not possibly remain as we used to be, and yet we are not close to becoming what we will be.

So how do we make the city better?

Allow me: