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The pot boileth over

Now that we have been fully informed by Statistics Canada that one in four of us has, at one time or another, smoked marijuana, let us stop bleating about whether the police will be able to detect marijuana-induced, acutely impaired drivers.

Now that we have been fully informed by Statistics Canada that one in four of us has, at one time or another, smoked marijuana, let us stop bleating about whether the police will be able to detect marijuana-induced, acutely impaired drivers. They can’t and won’t be able to do so for at least a decade.

And frankly, I could care less if U.S. border agents stop marijuana marketers, manufacturer or users at their border.

I am envious, of course, of the investors who have purchased stock in the marijuana market – but then I couldn’t bring myself to invest in tobacco companies when they were profitable – so I have only myself to blame.

I admit to grudging admiration for the politicians who are now, belatedly, striving mightily to minimize the damage they have created in their craving for more tax dollars to meet their campaign promises.

Personally however, I get to the point of nausea whenever I am exposed to the cavalier comments and attitude on this drug by our prime minister and the former president of the United States. I tried my best, in talking with my vulnerable patients, to inform them that marijuana can be addictive, would counteract any medication that they were taking in lowering their problems of attention span, impulse control and short-term memory. I even talked to them about the permanent effects of marijuana smoking on long-term memory as the drug perfuses their brains and permanently damages brain cells in their right and left temporal lobes as well as their prefrontal cortex. I even first wrote about pot in my first Commentary for this newspaper 13 years ago (Marijuana – the Fun Drug).

But the time for debate is over. Our circumstances today are similar to global warming. Recreational acceptance of pot is here to stay. Indeed, Canada is at the leading edge of advancing a global wave of increasing and promoting the advertising, sale and public use of marijuana. We will easily recover the increased costs to our health-care system by the sales and business taxes we raise from this industry. We may even cover some of the costs from global warming as we puff away. (Isn’t the marijuana plant a carbon sink?).

Tourism will flourish as we become a destination of choice for marijuana consumers worldwide. Of course, deaths and injuries from motor vehicle accidents due to impaired driving will increase.  And we will sacrifice some youths’ and young adults’ developing brains and damage their lives forever – but that is the cost of social progress in our modern world.

We will, for a while, inevitably have to put up with the bleating second-guessing of the press and politicians and the overblown chest-pounding of evocative libertarians and freedom-loving marijuana advocates. CBC radio is particularly ecstatic about it at the moment – seeking out contrarians – too late as usual.

And I freely admit, that in this matter, I and every pediatrician in this country have failed our patients, our children and our communities. We have been ineffective politically and were impotent advocates for the health of Canadian youth. But it is time to move on.

Now about gun control – starting with Toronto.

Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.

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