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Vice of cannabis use

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Taber Times
REEFER MADNESS: Canada's cannabis legalization legislation is designed to keep the substance out of the hands of children through regulation. TIMES FILE PHOTO

One of the defining characteristics of society at our time is the tendency for too many people to expect that any vice they desire to indulge in should be granted. Cannabis use is one of them. I wish more people would understand and deeply commit to living the understanding that we have one lifetime and one body and one mind to carry us through to the end of our time on earth. We all would prefer it to be a time of peace, happiness, achievement and fulfillment. But we also expect that there will be times of sorrow, pain, the dashing of dreams, suffering and eventual death. Why don’t we do all that we can to maximize the good and minimize the bad?

Since most of us desire this, why do we campaign for and demand the right to imbibe in vices that we know are harmful to us? Furthermore, why are there government parties, such as the one that is in power now, that promote the use of harmful substances and activities such as legalizing the use of cannabis. If it is done in the name of controlling the sale of this substance in order to take the criminal element out of it, then they ought also to look carefully at the end results of this action. All of the guidelines, penalties, warnings and education will not control its harm to society. The government of today admits that its use is harmful. Otherwise, why do they promise to set aside millions of dollars from the sale of the product to educate the youth, especially, of its harmful effects? If it will be harmful then why is it not harmful now, and why is there money to educate them then but not money to educate them now?

The basic questions however are, first, why do people knowing it is a vice at best and destructive to a healthy body and mind at worst, demand the right to legally consume it and its numerous derivatives, and second, why does a government pander to these demands in order to be popular, pretend that they are inclusive of all people and are only facing the realities of a diverse society? No, we expect that the government will develop the fortitude to do what is best for the citizenry of its country and say “no” to those who demand this particular vice at the expense of everyone to pay the increased health, administrative and enforcement costs.

RAY SHEEN

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