Ottawa Citizen Practices First
Class Journalism
A Brilliantly Insightful Editorial: "Marijuana isn’t just a serious issue.
It’s huge."
(Marijuananews note: Visitors to this site may
have noticed that I am a major fan of the Ottawa Citizen, but they have outdone themselves
in this editorial.
See
Tale of Two Capital
City Newspapers:
The Washington Post and The Ottawa Citizen On Medical Marijuana
-- Maybe We Should Apologize To King George.
and
Ottawa
Citizen Calls Our Beloved Drug Bizarro "Gonzo;"
"He sounded as if he were auditioning for the X-Files."
and
Three
Part Debate In The Ottawa Citizen Puts Drug Prohibition "In The Crucible Of
Fact."
There are two points that they are making in this piece.First,
marijuana is a serious subject, but politicians – and the media – never seem to
be able to resist making a joke about it – as did the Canadian Health Minister
recently.
I have long complained about this. I call it the "giggle factor."
The second point is one that I have been contemplating for a long time, the question of
how class, not just race, impacts marijuana law enforcement. In the 1970’s
when we made great strides in changing the old marijuana laws, it was quite clear that the
politicians were appalled to find out that white boys were actually being punished by laws
that were written for Blacks and Mexicans. Horrors!
After changing the laws, class divisions became even more of a factor, but almost no one
ever talks about them, particularly here in DEAland with our classless society in which
there is equal justice for all. [Pause for anti-emetic.]
The editors of the Citizen have let the very ugly cat out of the bag.
The well-off and well-connected are largely immune to the marijuana laws. Richard
Brookhiser writes candidly about how easy it was for him to get medical marijuana in New
York City and use it at the best cancer hospital. He makes his appeal for those less
fortunate.
See
New York Times Runs
Pro-Medical Marijuana Op-ed
By National Review Senior Editor Richard Brookhiser
The well-off can easily afford contraband prices and know that they will get the proper
deference from the police and other authority figures. Consequently, for some, marijuana
prohibition really is a joke at someone else’s expense. Or so it seemed.
When Eric Schlosser began his series on marijuana prohibition in The Atlantic Monthly
a few years ago he noted that the editorial conference began with the question as to
whether anyone was still being arrested on marijuana charges. The Atlantic editors
are among the best-informed people in the world, but they had never seen the arrest
statistics. And certainly no one in their circle had ever been arrested. If so, it would
have been kept quiet and handled by the lawyers. That is just the way the world works.
The problem with that way of doing things is the ruling classes are largely oblivious of
the crimes being committed in their names. That seems to suit the editors of the
Washington Post and the prohibitionist media in much of the world. However, in Canada,
something strange has happened. Their journalists often practice actual journalism and
take seriously their role as watchdogs for the public. Perhaps it is something in the
water.
As The Citizen points out, marijuana prohibition is no joking matter for many of
its victims. However, it is a problem for society as a whole. "Marijuana
isn’t just a serious issue. It’s huge."
It is time for the middle and upper classes to stop treating it
like a joke and to wake up to what is going on and take the issue damned seriously,
morally and intellectually.
This brilliant editorial makes this very clear.)
ROCK SHOWS SOME CLASS
June 2, 1999
From The Ottawa Citizen
letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
We’re pleased to see Allan Rock is keeping himself amused. After an appearance
before a parliamentary committee to answer questions about medical marijuana, the health
minister was asked by the press whether he himself had ever lit up. Grinning like Cheech
Marin, Mr. Rock replied, "As a former attorney-general of Canada, I’m keenly
aware there’s a right against self-incrimination in this country. And I fully intend
to invoke that right."
Tee-hee, Mr. Rock. How droll.
We wonder, though, if everyone found the minister’s
witticism so delightful. How about, say, the 600,000 Canadians slapped with criminal
records for doing exactly what Mr. Rock may or may not (wink, wink) have done? We doubt
they chuckled along with the merry minister.
But if Mr. Rock’s humour is flat, it is certainly familiar. Giggly one-liners like
Mr. Rock’s are the standard response of politicians whenever marijuana is mentioned. The media, too, seem incapable of discussing it without the juvenile puns
and tittering that show they just do not see marijuana as a serious issue.
But why not? In Canada last year, 72 per cent of all drug
offences involved marijuana. That’s up from 58 per cent in 1991. Then there’s
simple marijuana possession—which Mr. Rock sloughed off with a smirk and the knowing
laughs of reporters.
It alone makes up one-half of all drug offences. Tens of millions of dollars,
thousands of police officers, scores of new laws, untold numbers of judges, attorneys and
jail guards, and nearly 70,000 prosecutions every year: The whole machinery of drug
prohibition is mainly about marijuana.
Marijuana isn’t just a serious issue. It’s huge. So why do
politicians and media treat it like trivia? At the risk of sounding like Marxists, the
reason is class bias.
For members of the middle- and upper-classes—in which most politicians and
journalists are snugly ensconced—marijuana truly isn’t a big deal. Frat boys
caught puffing a joint might get scolded by the university don or perhaps kicked out of
residence. The teenager caught with pot in the school washroom will be suspended and sent
home to her angry parents. The stockbroker found lighting up in his BMW will likely get
off with a warning and a smirk from a cop. Only rarely will the justice system take these
"crimes" seriously enough to land the offenders in court.
If the middle-class dope-smoker is put in front of a judge, it’s not likely
he’ll face Biblical vengeance. The well-spoken, the nicely dressed, the "good
kid from a decent home": These will almost certainly get a conditional or absolute
discharge. No criminal record. Certainly no jail time.
This is how the law typically deals with marijuana in the world
of journalists and politicians. It’s all they know, so they assume it’s all
there is to know.
But there is more to the story, as the mammoth number of marijuana convictions shows.
Lower-class dope-smokers who aren’t so articulate, don’t dress so nicely, do
come from broken families and have had other brushes with the law while growing up in
lousy circumstances: The justice system takes marijuana very seriously for these people.
They get jail time. They get criminal records. They are punished
and their lives forever burdened simply because they did something frat boys,
stockbrokers, (and cabinet ministers?) do every day with impunity.
It’s no joke. It’s not something to giggle about. It’s a serious
injustice that has to end.
Copyright: 1999 The Ottawa Citizen
See the next story:
"Why not simply redefine legalization
as a "nation-wide experiment designed to measure the long-term effect of the
non-medical use of the drug?" -- Suggests Canada’s National Paper
Supported