On the news of Radio Canada last night, I was much surprised to hear that of the Industrial world countries Canada tops the list in consumption of cannabis. I would have thought that Holland where smoking Cannabis in not a legal offense, would have come up first. Is it the proof that changing the law to make users not prosecuted for possession of small quantity of soft drug does not promote the usage of the drug?
Gandia as cannabis is commonly called in Mauritius were in the past almost openly available. I recalled in my school days we used to know the places where the famous pot were sold for a little as .50 cents. Today with the crack down this business went underground and the prices have become very high. The gandia business has become a very lucrative for big drug barons who are upgrading to harder drugs. Should we in Mauritius adopt the Dutch Drug Policy (DDP)? The question is “does smoking of tobacco or taking soft drug promote usage of harder drug?†Do we have to consider the drug addicts as patients suffering from a disease or a criminal to be jailed? We know today in Mauritius, that HIV propagation is mainly through exchange of needles by the drug addicts. There again will the Dutch Drug Policy be studied as a possible solution for us?
Pils, the organization defending HIV patients, has been campaigning in the direction of the DDP. Looks like Rama Valayden our Minister of Justice is for the amendment of the law. Yet nothing is happening. Is it time for a national debate on the subject and the start of solving one of plague of our society?
In Canada 1in 6 persons have tried pot smoking. Luckily I had only 4 brothers & 1 sister in Canada! But today with their children’ number aggregated with my own children living in Canada, the numbers are playing against by my folks!
C for Cannabis in Canada. M for Mass in Mauritius
4 comments ↓
I was recently in Singapore and I came across a T-Shirt in its markets with the Canadian flag on it.. but with Canabis written underneath. I wanted to take it but they didn’t have the size I was looking for.. duh..
Yes C for Cannabis…It is a shame for a country like Canada to top the list. Luckily Cannabis is a soft drug…You will perhaps know that during the prohibition years in America the country where alcohol were distilled was the Canada. This is part of the story of Alcapone and Chicago gang. My mother used to live next door to the distillery of the Seagram family in Ville Lasalle ,Montreal.
see article on l’express 15 jul
http://www.lexpress.mu/display_search_result.php?news_id=90177
Article publié le Dimanche 15 juillet 2007.
TOXICOMANIE
Le cannabis continue de se banaliser en France
Le « joint » est fumé par 550 000 usagers quotidiens.
Diffusé depuis le 10 juillet, l’ouvrage Cannabis, données essentielles constitue la première monographie réalisée par l’Observatoire français des drogues et des toxicomanies (OFDT) sur la substance illicite la plus répandue en France. Et le « joint » s’est largement banalisé. Il compte près de quatre millions de consommateurs, dont 1,2 million d’usagers réguliers et 550 000 usagers quotidiens.
Chez les jeunes, l’expérimentation du cannabis est devenue un « modèle dominant », souligne Jean-Michel Costes, directeur de l’OFDT. C’est en moyenne vers 15 ans qu’on fume son premier joint. Ensuite, l’usage du cannabis est plus lié à « l’intensité de la sociabilité et des contacts amicaux » qu’au milieu social ou au parcours scolaire.
Ce tableau cache quelques surprises. Ainsi, les cadres s’avèrent plus souvent des consommateurs réguliers que les ouvriers. Quant aux étudiants de l’enseignement supérieur, ils ne sont pas plus « accros » que les actifs de leur âge.
Indeed. Here in Canada, Marijuana while not legal is very common. The smell of a joint is a very common occurrence when walking around in the city and it is actually quite unsurprising here that socio-economic factors are not a determinant.
After all, we are quite a liberal country for being in North America. Marijuana is even legal in some cases; provided it is used for medicinal purposes. Given the facts, Marijuana is far less harmful to health than alcohol and is less a concern of addiction. Furthermore, its alleged “gateway drug” properties are highly mitigated. Legalizing marijuana would cut off the drug barons’ oxygen supply while segmenting the illicit substance user population in my opinion.
Though, as with alcohol it is detrimental to public health, it does not come close to matching “harder” drugs, such as heroin, it does not deserve to belong in the same class. (in the US, it is a Class A drug, same with heroin et al.).
While no drug is better overall, I think we should better focus our efforts on issues such as the tobacco industry, the corn and soy racket in the states and other issues like education, health-care and economic growth. Do a few sedated and mildly euphoric people deserve that much wrath? They sound pretty harmless to me!
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