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Protesters call for new marijuana laws Pamela Roth Lethbridge Herald Saturday 02 May 2009 But that’s just one of several benefits legalizing the drug would bring to our society, she said, as she held her megaphone up to her lips and rallied about 30 supporters at city hall during the second annual Global Marijuana March on Saturday afternoon, which ended with participants lighting up and passing around a few joints. Cartwright is the president of the Southern Alberta Cannabis Club and has been using marijuana medicinally for several years to help cope with her colitis. But it hasn’t come without some discrimination. She is one of three million people in Canada who can’t get their doctor to sign a note saying they can have marijuana for medicinal purposes. As a result, she believes the public needs to be made aware of how much of a difference marijuana makes in helping people with chronic health problems. And since 53 per cent of Canadians support the idea of legalizing and regulating the drug, why not just do it, she questions. “I am out here for the simple fact that prohibition is wrong. There is a lot of people that support what we do, but can’t come out and say anything for fear of losing their job. I don’t have a job to lose so I’m speaking for all the people who can’t,” said Cartwright, who was also protesting against Bill C-15, which proposes mandatory minimum jail sentences for drug offenders. If passed into law, the bill, among its other provisions, would throw people caught with one marijuana plant into jail for a minimum of six months. It’s a bill Cartwright, and many other marijuana supporters, believes simply won’t work. Increasing the penalties for growing cannabis will only increase the amount of organized crime involvement, she said, along with the amount of violence. “I understand their whole concept on cracking down on gangs, but if you ended prohibition the gangs would have nothing to work with,” she said. “They (prohibitions) have never worked and they won’t work. We are wasting our tax paying dollars on trying to catch gangsters.” The marijuana march was part of an international event with 263 cities worldwide taking part this year. Although there weren’t as many supporters as last year’s march attracted, which had more than 60 people show up at city hall, this year’s participants were still boisterous as they walked through the streets of downtown, waving signs stating “I’m not a criminal” and “I don’t do drugs, I?need.” Wearing a green toque and holding a sign that read, “Hemp for a green future,” Charlie Christensen led the way. “I am here to bring awareness to the cannabis plant itself. Cannabis, as an industrial crop, is something that a lot of people don’t know about. With the environmental crisis that we are facing, like running out of oil and using synthetics, using toxic waste, all of that stuff can be stopped if we use hemp as an industrial crop,” said Christensen, who organized a similar march in 2003. “I know quite a few people that use it for medicinal purposes and would have a worse life if they didn’t use it as a medicine. I fully support legalization and I think it should be available for use for everyone.” http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/content/view/54654/26/
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