News

Large Indoor Farms Limited to Certain Industrial Areas Rules Would Allow Operations As Big As a Football Field

GILBERT - The town's first medical-marijuana dispensary is preparing to open in an industrial park near Elliot and McQueen roads, behind Mesquite High School.

Eastern District Head Benjamin Wagner Explains That Colorado, Washington Faces Less Fed Intervention Because Laws Are Better

Harper Government Denounced for 'Punitive' Policies The personal use of illegal drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine, should be decriminalized as part of a federal-provincial strategy to tackle drug abuse, a B.C.-based national coalition of drug policy experts argue.

Opinions

Fascinated though I am by the scandals unfolding in Ottawa, the more compelling Canadian train wreck is in Toronto, where the city's cartoonish mayor now stands accused of smoking crack cocaine.

The most puzzling thing about the video purporting to show Rob Ford smoking crack and the Toronto Star's coverage thereof is Ford's apparent reticence in suing the Star for defamation. The Star coverage has Ford cavorting with criminals and smoking crack. It's hard to imagine a more serious defamation of our law and order mayor.

The Organization of American States, a hemispheric group to which Canada and the United States belong, issued a report after a year of careful study that raises legalization of marijuana as a way to battle the high social and financial cost of prohibition. Canada should welcome the OAS's call to recognize pot as a drug to be regulated, like alcohol.

It is disturbing to read that 10 prolific offenders in Greater Victoria accounted for 2,893 negative contacts with police in six years, but there is hope that innovative approaches can bring down that number.

Letters

Editor: State Attorney General Kathleen Kane says marijuana is a "gateway drug" ("Kane against pot legalization," May 18). So why don't we have more than 100 million heroin addicts? More than 100 million cocaine addicts? More than 100 million meth addicts?

Thousands of Americans die every year from Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. That is why the federal government set up a bureau to regulate these products a century ago, but they still are legal to possess and use.

Re: "Marijuana rule defies First Amendment," May 13 editorial. A proposed rule forcing pot magazines behind the counters is not only in violation of the First Amendment, but it is just plain stupid. If the under-21 crowd wants information on marijuana, they only need to check their smartphones. Print magazines are sooo last decade, dude.

Regarding "Suburbia's deadly secret" (Page A-1, May 5): How many more young adults and kids must die before we relearn the lesson that our nation painfully learned between 1920 and 1933? Prohibition doesn't work, it can't work and it will never work.

The government justifies the drug war by saying it "takes drugs off the street". What it really does is raise the price so high that casual users quit. But they were no problem in the first place. Problem users will do almost anything to get the cash to pay the price.

Thanks for publishing Edward R. Arnold's thoughtful letter: "Marijuana is safer than tobacco or alcohol" (May 12).

Health care professionals report America is suffering an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. What if a widely used substance could prevent and maybe "cure" diabetes? There is, and cannabis is that substance.