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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Canada: Editorial: It's Agreed: Decriminalize Pot
ccguide Friday 15 Mar 2002 Pubdate: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2002 Southam Inc. Contact: Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) IT'S AGREED: DECRIMINALIZE POT The lobby to decriminalize marijuana continues to grow, with the Canadian Medical Association now joining the push. The organization, which represents more than 50,000 physicians, has strengthened the case previously made by groups such as the federally funded Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, the Association of Canadian Police Chiefs and the Canadian Bar Association. These organizations hardly constitute a hippy rabble. What is it going to take for the federal government to abandon the obsolete view that marijuana is a dangerous vice that merits the force of Criminal Code sanction? The CMA notes that of the 66,500 drug offences in Canada in 1997, more than 70%, or 47,908, were cannabis-related. Of those, two-thirds involved mere possession and the majority of those charged with offences were young. About 2,000 Canadians go to jail annually for simple possession of marijuana. It is these figures, and not the consumption of the mood-altering substance, that constitute the real source of concern: Enforcement of our marijuana laws necessitates a useless waste of public funds and police resources. The facts show that marijuana generally contributes to ruin of neither mind nor body. As the British medical journal, The Lancet, argued in a 1998 editorial: "It would be reasonable to judge cannabis less of a threat to health than alcohol or tobacco." Around the world, tobacco claims more than three million lives every year. Alcohol claims another 750,000. Marijuana, which is far less addictive than either -- to the extent it is addictive at all -- is harmless by comparison. While smoking pot, like smoking tobacco, harms the lungs and throat, there is not a single confirmed published case of a human death arising from cannabis poisoning anywhere. Public opinion is also well ahead of the government on this issue. Polls have shown that Canadians overwhelmingly support decriminalization, with one survey in 1990 finding that seven out of 10 Canadians felt marijuana possession merited no more than a fine. Canada has already made some progress in making marijuana available to those who need it for medical reasons. But that is not enough. The federal legislators should take the advice of their doctors and decriminalize marijuana entirely. - --- MAP posted-by: Ariel
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