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Letter to Editor: “Just Say No” to the American Inquisition
By Hempology | July 23, 2007
Mirror, CN, QU
19 Jul 2007
OH CANNABA PART 2
[Re: "Oh Cannaba!" by Raf Katigbak, Riff-Raff, July 12] Writing under the pen name Janey Canuck in the early 1900s, an Edmonton woman, by the name of Emily Murphy, first warned Canadians about the dread reefer and its association with dark-skinned minorities. The sensationalist yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst led to marijuana’s criminalization in the United States. At the time, marijuana use in North America was limited to Mexican immigrants and black jazz-musicians. Whites did not even begin to smoke marijuana until after it was prohibited. Almost 100 years later, Canada leads the industrialized world in cannabis consumption. Prohibition has been counterproductive at best.
What started as a racist reaction to Mexican immigration has since morphed into an intergenerational culture war, with Canada’s southern neighbour leading the global charge. The war on drugs has given the ( former ) land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world. There is a good reason millions of people prefer marijuana to martinis. Cannabis is easily the least harmful recreational drug available, legal or otherwise. Science tells us that jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions. History shows they are ineffective as deterrents. It’s time for Canada to “Just Say No” to the American Inquisition.
The following Virginia Law Review article offers a good overview of the cultural roots of marijuana legislation: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/vlr/vlrtoc.htm. For additional historical background, please see the Canadian Senate report: http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/rep-e/summary-e.htm
Robert Sharpe, Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy
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