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12 - Orono Weekly Times Wednesday, November 29,2006 Basic Black by Arthur Black This country is going to pot When I was in my late 'teens I lived for a time in a relatively seamy section of Montreal. Montreal. My landlord, a wannabe jazz saxophonist, saxophonist, used to get together with an overgrown flower child who answered to the name Posey. They would spend most afternoons sitting on a balcony overlooking Rue Guy, puffing on doobies the size of panatelas as they . giggled at the world going by. They were the only two people I knew in the world who smoked pot. Today, nearly half a century, legions of narc squads, and several hundred hundred million anti-drug dollars later, pot is being sold by kids, to kids in schoolyards from Pang- nirtung to P.E.L. I smell its sweet, sharp scent pretty much every time I walk past the park in the middle of town. So much for the War on Drugs. We've always been a little nutsoid about this ' backyard weed. The Americans can largely Men, Take Control of Your Health ^ I B . ititel HLj. • be a non-smoker • eat 5-10 servings of vegetables and fruit a day • be physically active • limit your alcohol consumption • use sun protection . • follow cancer-screening guidelines Find out MORE 1 about reducing your risk of developing cancer. Call us at 1 888 939-3333 or visit www.cancer.ca. Canadian Société Cancer canadienne Society du cancer blame. J. Edgar Hoover, the cross-dressing paranoiac paranoiac who ran the FBI. with an iron fist for most of the 20th century. He's the guy who made sure Americans were taught that marijuana was as evil as heroin, serial axe murderers and devil worship. We Canucks, can thank Emily Murphy: Ms. Murphy was a pioneer of women's' rights in Canada. She became the first woman police magistrate in the British Empire back in 1916. She was . instrumental instrumental in seeing that women were regarded as 'people' under Canadian law. Then there was her other side. 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Modern Facility Historical Setting Weddings, Banquets, Meetings (30 to 250 people) Self-catering kitchen. 905-697-2856 , , ' , • ' V 'l '< ; CHATTERTON ELECTRIC RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL • INDUSTRIAL POLE LINE CONSTRUCTION Dave Chatterton Orono, Ontario Tel: 905-983-5546 If no answer: 905-983-5940 ■' ■ " V She used her column as a bully pulpit to pitch her personal war against drugs - specifically marijuana marijuana - and more specifically specifically against the people who used it. "Chinese, Assyrians, Negroes and Greeks" she assured her readers, were responsible for the presence of marijuana" (she spelled it marahua- na) "in Canada." She crusaded against letting such foreigners into the country. For those that were already here, she argued for their 'compulsory 'compulsory sterilization' r indeed, for all "lesser humans" who she complained complained were polluting the gene pool. She worried, in print, that the white race; was faltering, while the more prolific "black and yellow yellow races may yet obtain the ascendancy" and thus threatened to "wrest the leadership of the world from the British". When it came to the evils of pot, she really let her hair down. In her . Macleans column she wrote: "Persons using this narcotic, smoke the dried leaves of the plant, : which has the effect of driving them completely insane... Addicts to this drug, : while ; under its influence; are immune to pain, and y could : be - severely injured without having any realization of their condition..... They become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other per- . sons, using the most savage savage methods without any sense of moral responsibility." . The .powers that be bought into Murphy's loopy argument. The laws of the country were revamped so that marijuana marijuana joined the ranks of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. A weed that grows freely in ditches and barnyards became a criminal substance, possession possession of which could put you in jail. And it stuck. In 1961, nearly 30 years after her death, any Canadian found with even a few grams of marijuana in pocket or purse could be sentenced to seven years jn the slammer. Who knows how many thousand's thousand's of Canadians have been arrested, charged, and in many cases thrown into jail as a direct result of Emily Murphy's delusional rantings? Interestingly, marijuana marijuana is making a comeback. comeback. Not so much as a recreational drug (that's a constant) but as legitimate legitimate medicine. Many chronic pain sufferers swear cannabis is the • only remedy, that brings them relief, And a recent study published in the : , science journal Molecular Molecular -Pharmaceutics claims that smoking marijuana may help stop the onset of Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is, of course, a disease charac- . terized by memory loss, poor decision-making and loss of language skills. Which is pretty much what happens to you when you smoke a joint. „ : Emily Murphy would- • n't appreciate the irony, but my old Montreal landlord would get a giggle out of it. : , "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and ! j 99 percent perspiration." | Thomas A. Edison, 1847 -1931 || || : ***#*. •' p.| j " Freedom is not worth having ! .. J if it does not include j the freedom to make mistakes." | Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 - 1948 || ***** . ' j|j I "Always acknowledge a fault. -î : ' j This will throw those in authority j ■ ; off their guard and give you . < an opportunity to commit more." | j Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910