Re: “Health officer back legal marijuana” Sooke News Mirror, Jan. 4, 2012.
It’s commendable that B.C. public health officers recognize the obvious pitfalls of cannabis (marijuana) prohibition however, some clarifications must be made. Cannabis may not be totally safe but it hasn’t directly killed anyone in over 5,000 years of documented use. That’s safety on a Biblical scale.
Cannabis should be RE-legalized, regulated and taxed because it is far safer than alcohol and it is here for the duration anyway. Why keep forcing the dangerous underground black market to regulate a business that is guaranteed to continue?
Citizens, including teens, who purchase cannabis may be doing so from people who also sell hard drugs which increases hard drug addiction rates. Selling the extremely popular God-given plant cannabis like alcohol would remove hard drugs from the equation.
One recent study even indicates states which have legalized medical cannabis are experiencing lower alcohol usage and less traffic fatalities (Study: States That Legalized Medical Pot See Decrease, The Missoulian, Dec. 28, 2011).
Stan White
Dillon, Colorado