Friday, July 22, 1994 - North Shore News - 23 q sats ta eas aes IT IS tegal for an adult to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco, but illegal for anyone to smoke marijuana, Do you think marijuana should be legalized? Do you think more money should be spent on education and encouraging people to choose a lite without drugs, ineluding alcohol? NEWS photo Heil Lucenta JOHN DICKERSON, 17, leaves his mark on the wall of the West Vancouver YMCA's youth centre. Dickerson was one of several Seattle teens from that city’s Street Smart Art program who were in town to show West Van youths what can be done with a spray can. e politics of s All drugs harm in the end, but why is alcohol legal when pot, ‘a less harmful alternative,’ is not? IT 1S unfortunate that many peopie feel they need drugs to get them through the day. Whether it be coffee, cigarettes, aicohol, marijuana, or anything else that enables a person to achieve a superficial high, all drugs pollute your mind and your body. They can cloud the most important things in your life and they cai Cause you to lose sight of your goals and ambi- tions. It would be wonderful if we were all pure and free of dependencies and addictions. But the reality is many people use, and will continu to use, some form of drug as fang as it is avail- able. Al present, a person who would prefer to smoke a joint rather than have an alcoholic drink must nsk prosecution to do so. Why is it that alcohol, which is so destructive, is legal when mari- juana, apparently much less harm- ful, is egal? In 1992, 24.411 people died in B.C. Of those, 799 of those deaths were related to alcohol. A total of 397 of them were indi- rectly related to alcohol (caused by mental disorders, respiratory dis- eases, neurological diseases, suicide, homicide and accidents), while 402 deaths were directly related to alco- hal (liver disease, alcohol poisoning, alcoholic psychosis and dependence. chronic pancreatitis and a number of other fatal health problems). No deaths recorded were caused by marijua- na. Not only does alco- hol cause many fatal health problems, the consumption of it often makes people violent and aggressive, unlike marijuana which makes people feel mellow and contented. Marijuana can make some peo- ole tired, unmotivated and hungry. but not angry or aggressive, the way alcohel does. Qnre doesn’t hear about men beating up their wives and kids or geiting into fizbts after getting high on marijuana but these things com- monly occur when people drink aleohol. We should be asking why alco- hol is legal and marijuana is not. Although our statistics tell us that alcohol causes many health prob- lems and psychological disorders, as well as being the cause of many fatal accidents, many people still! believe that marijuana is much more harmful than alcohol. Is this because marijuana is ifle- gal? Some people form their views according to the government's laws: therefore they believe that if mari- juana is illegal, it must be very bad. Although alcohol often does harm and causes us grief in the end, our society and government have SA STREET DE, OEE LS Pe YES 66 People who want to smoke marijuana should be able to do so without risking prosecution, as they can with alcohol and tobacco. 99 readily accepted it into our homes and our establishments while refus- ing to accept marijuana. Alcohol causes se much more grief for so many people. Everyone is affected by it. Many of us cither know someone whose family has fallen apart due to alcohol abuse or had someone they care about injured or killed in an alcohol-related accident, The government sells this drug te us but prohibits the use of a less harmful alternative such as marijua- na. oking. It’s not that marijuana is harm- less: all drugs harm in the end, but many people do not realize which drugs are harming us the most. Some people seem to think that marijuana is a deadly mind-altering drug that is highly addictive and that if you wy it once, you're hooked. It is possible to become psycho- logically addicted to marijuana, but you can also become psychological- ly addicted to food, sex, or TV. Many people made an issue about American pres- ident Bill Clinton taking a toke of a joint when he was young. I thought it was totally ridiculous. No one would have cared if he had said that he'd been totally wasted in the bars a few hundred times and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. The U.S. and Canadian govern- ments have decided to single out marijuana to make it illegal, even though alcohol, cofi.. and cigarettes are also drugs (two of which are responsible for many deaths). So what should we do? It seems there are many people who enjoy taking some kind of drug. Is it right that people who prefer a drink over atoke should be legally allowed to indulge themselves in their bad habits, but people who would prefer the latter cannot? If the government stopped seiling THE OCEAN She is wide deep and mysterious. Her paunch holds creatures of the unknown. Slowly she laps at the Earth’s toes While she lays breathing so steadily, Up, down, up, down. Her back bobs up and down Forming a smail foamy surface To keep the chill from her rear... Suddenly! A wind strikes up, Causing her to panic. She tries to run upon the Earth, for her rotection. ick, tick, the min- utes tick by, Then all is calm, She sleeps peacefully. Colleen Cowdell is a Grade 6 student at Upper Lynn elementary school in North Vancouver. ‘ee alcohol and made it illegal it would not end the sale and consumption of it. As we learned during prohibi- tion, when a government prohibits the sale of any product for which a demand exists, it creates an opportu- nity for a profitable. illegal trade in that product. Organized crime thrives, causin- gany problems. It happened during prohibition when alcohol was illegal and it is happening in the drug trade today. People who want to smoke mari- juana should be able to do so with- out risking prosecution, as they can with alcohol and tobacco. Hf it were legal to grow and smoke pot in your home, police wouldn't waste their time and money trying to bust pot dealers and pot smokers and they might have more time to spend making this place safer. There would not be any money». in marijuana for dealers because anyone who wanted to smoke it would grow it. It would be wonderful if there were no mind-altering substances to tempt us. There would be no more wasted lives caused by addictions. But since there are. we should be directing the resources that are now being used in the futile war against marijuana towards educating and encouraging people to choose a life without drugs, including alcohol. This piece is the opinion of Margaret Bryant, 18, who attends Sutherland secondary school.