Alberta's reefer madness hitting new highs

By MICHAEL PLATT

As Albertans go, they outnumber Catholics, smokers, Edmontonians, voters and overweight folk -- though a massive intake of potato chips might soon balance out the latter.

They're pot smokers, and a new study by Health Canada shows a staggering -- and presumably peckish -- 45.3% of Albertans have inhaled marijuana, with 34.7% returning for a regular hit of weed.

The 2007 federal government statistics place supposedly clean-cut, law-and-order Alberta as the second-most stoned province, just behind hippy-infested B.C., where 37.4% of citizens are repeat tokers of Cannabis sativa.

Cannabis sativa, for those who've avoided cultural contact for the past 40 years, is a psychoactive herb that generally produces pleasant emotions ranging from giddiness to well-being in smokers while stimulating hunger.

Before you start packing your bags, determined to leave this wasted western Babylon behind, take note that Alberta and B.C. aren't anomalies when it comes to dope consumption.

Just under a third of Canadians, or 32.2%, have smoked pot more than once, with another 6.9% admitting to at least trying marijuana.

Even in Newfoundland, the least cannabis-prone province, 26.4% of citizens have smoked up more than once.

It's reefer madness, no matter what side of the bong you're sitting on.

Albertans who morally support the law of the land will be horrified to think nearly half of their neighbours and co-workers are drug users, smoking from a secret stash of illegal narcotics.

Those who morally oppose the law of the land will be aghast over a justice system that labels nearly half of Albertans as criminals.

Professor Geraint Osborne, a social science/humanities researcher at the University of Alberta, is part of the latter camp -- he feels marijuana laws no longer reflect the society they are meant to protect.

"We have to start distinguishing between use and abuse of marijuana, as we do with alcohol," said Osborne.

"There are people who will abuse any substance, and others who will use that substance responsibly, and our policy has to change to address this issue."

Osborne says the sheer number of citizens who are breaking the law by smoking marijuana shows society has changed since cannabis was outlawed a century ago -- and yet users are still officially a criminal threat.

"That's why the majority are in the closet on this issue," he said.
"These are middle-class adults with kids and responsibilities, and they are not criminals at all."

The continued legal condemnation of marijuana users, according to Osborne, is the root of organized crime's interest in the drug and illegal activity connected with it.

"It's no different from bootlegging during prohibition."

For those who might be sitting on the fence over marijuana's legal and social status, hearing a university professor's sober opinion is a refreshing change, even if it reflects what many out-of-the-closet smokers have been saying all along.

Too often, the legalize-weed proponents come off as total waste-heads -- but the new numbers, suggesting widespread use by more than a third of Albertans, prove chronic smokers are to marijuana what the chronic drunk is to alcohol.

Someone whose life is consumed by a drug is not a worthy spokesman for change.

The majority of Alberta users, judging by the lack of giggling and bloodshot eyes in our offices and work spaces, are capable of handling marijuana the way they handle alcohol.

Whether you smoke it or not, agree with it or otherwise, the Health Canada study offers a clear message -- marijuana can be commonly used without harming society as a whole, just like alcohol.

If it wasn't the case, Alberta would be struggling to survive as a productive province.

For the majority of users, marijuana is a recreational treat, just like an occasional beer, or glass of wine.

And there are more than 1.2-million Albertans who've enjoyed it.
Make that 1.2-million criminals.

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