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The Following was published in the Editorial section of the Sentinel Review on Monday Sept. 29 following our Hugely Successful demonstration on Saturday...Thank You for Coming:-)
Our Comments Follow
The weekend's pot rally in Woodstock provided the best evidence yet that the federal government needs to get out of limbo and make a decision on its marijuana law.
The evidence did not come from those who organized the rally. In fact, for a group trying to bring attention to their cause, they might have wanted to pass the word around beyond their circle of friends. (The Sentinel-Review only learned of the rally when a curious passerby informed the newsroom that there was an odd cloud of smoke hanging over the south end of Dundas Street, so to speak).
And it didn't come with the tired and cliched arguments the protesters spoke to justify their odd choice of political passion - that, as a drug, marijuana is less harmful that alcohol, that taxing it as a legalized product could bring in great revenue for fighting the repercussions of harder drugs and that, by golly, it should be every Canadian adult's right to get as baked as they possibly can.
No, and the point wasn't even made by the passing police patrol, who said their hands were tied from making arrests as long as the protesters weren't rowdy (Pot protesters? No worries there), and were not carrying more than 30 grams of the weed at a time.
Due to recent court proceedings which have all but thrown out charges of minor possession, police are taking the rare stance of not enforcing a law still on the books.
All that is confusing enough, but the real proof of why we need some form of working pot legislation was through a 14-year-old girl who attended the rally with her father.
Both attended as avid users of the drug, both smoking happily with their fellow supporters, proud of the fact they have a hobby they can do together and happy to speak to the newspaper about their shared passion.
Whatever you think of the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana, this is not a healthy hobby for a 14 year old and this pair's enthusiastic bragging of their smoking habit is disturbing.
Smoking, drinking, voting, sex - all these are regulated in some form and have age restrictions to protect our youth from making adult decisions too early.
It's for their own sake and for the sake of our society at large.
Decriminalization suggestions so far have at least recognized that our youth should still be legally barred from using the drug in much the same way they are from liquor and cigarettes.
That a daddy-daughter marijuana smoking team is proudly part of the lobby to legalize the drug speaks volumes about those who are behind this effort.
That the law is handcuffed to stop this kind of misuse by a minor, as provided by dad himself, is a troubling side-effect to the ongoing confusion of the law.
Regardless of the politics behind the controversial debate of decriminalization, that debate must come sooner or later nonetheless, if only to regulate what is still a drug after all and give police the tools to keep it out of the hands of children.
- Ted Rath
Although laws exist to govern the use of such drugs as tobacco and alcohol, let us not forget the medicinal benefits of Marijuana, of which there are none when we consider the use of tobacco or alcohol.
Yes, we need reform. Naturally, it is essential that we protect our young people from making poor choices often attributed to the ignorance of their youth. These poor choices can be made with regard to sex, drugs, alcohol, focus on education, health and career choices as well as in many other situations. We need to spend more time on educating our children to what is real and less time protecting the world of fantasy we call their innocence. In other words, better to teach your children about the safe use of condoms than in the belief of a Santa Clause.
Perhaps more appalling than anything contained herein is the fact that not only are we allowed to poison our children in our homes with the nasty byproducts of cigarettes, but it is also constitutionally allotted for us to consume alcohol in front of our children to the point of drunken, incoherent, stupidity. And, for the record, I do not believe that I am the only person throughout the coarse of my life who has seen a minor committing such an offence. Again, I believe our only Choice is education.
And to our 200 or more "circle of friends" as the media would put it, we thank them all for coming. We know, as we have been told by many, that countless others would have attended had we been able to reach them with the message. But the fact remains that in our small town we had over 200 people come, that's 1/2 of the turnout at a recent event in Ottawa, and 4 times the turn out recently in London. I guess that we are fortunate to have such a large Circle of Friends. Although we neglected to publicize this event via the Sentinal Review, we did hand out flyers all over town. Our flyers were located at a couple of local business and our sandwich board out front foretold of the event. We also advertised here, on our website, inch for inch more value for your advertising dollar. This event was quiet and peaceful, no rowdies, no worries, over 200 people of diversity unified by a peaceful culture.
We do not believe that smoking Marijuana is a crime. Where is the crime is smoking a joint? The only crime being committed is on behalf of the legislature which forces us to buy Marijuana from dangerous criminals. Marijuana should not be decriminalized, it should be legalized, taxed and regulated, and sold to adults in the same manor as cigarettes or alcohol. And, we should educate our children to provide them with the tools they need to make the choices that represent their individuality.
Godivas
