It’s commendable that B.C. public health officers recognize the obvious pitfalls of cannabis (marijuana) prohibition (“Legalize and tax pot, health officers urge,” The Leader, Jan. 3,). 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.
Cannabis prohibition hasn’t worked anywhere in North America; a sane reason to continue cannabis prohibition just doesn’t exist.
Stan White
Dillon, Colorado