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Foster has backward ideas about pot

Need to research further before preaching to the rest of us about the spread of the marijuana “virus.”
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Foster has backward ideas about pot

Re: “Legalization of pot a step backward”.

Perry Foster says “many Canadians are greeting the legalization of marijuana in a celebratory manner.” As a cannabis user for 45 years, I am not celebrating. For me, cannabis is a medicine and a religious sacrament, so I agree it is a step backward for government to be focusing only on recreational use.

Foster points out that “today’s marijuana is much more potent” and “that you would have to smoke up to 15 1970 joints to equal one from today.” Personally, I would prefer to smoke one potent joint than 15 mediocre ones to get the same effect. As it is the most effective and non-addictive painkiller available, I doubt that “THC in concentrate form is going to cause much more pain for all of us.”

Foster says, “The medical evidence of the detrimental effects of cannabis on our youth are well documented.” Show us the documentation. I started at age 15 and there are many others who can tell the same story. Any detrimental effects on our youth would be due to using cannabis for recreation instead of healing or spiritual inspiration. Drinking has far more detrimental effects, but as we have seen with both alcohol and marijuana, prohibition does not prevent people from getting their hands on it.

Compared to other “drugs,” cannabis is non-toxic and reasonably benign. In fact, our bodies produce natural endocannabinoids and our brains are equipped with cannabinoid receptors. Our endocannabinoid systems help regulate a variety of physiological and cognitive processes including fertility and pregnancy during pre and postnatal development, appetite, pain sensation, mood and memory and in mediating the pharmacological effects of the cannabis plant.

Cannabis has been used as medicine for thousands of years. Instead of controlled legalization, it should have been deregulated and treated the same as any other healing herb given to us by the creator. I totally agree that government should not be “cashing in” on marijuana or offering it as recreation, but Perry Foster needs to research a little further before preaching to the rest of us about the spread of the marijuana “virus.”

David Work

Lake Cowichan