Supporting product placement

“Verisimilitude” is the one word which we are afraid to use when discussing the use of brand name products in TV and film [“Starring your brand,” March 9]. While my Luddite leanings lead me to shun all ads in all their forms, I have to say that I prefer real products in movies, as opposed to those annoying "generic" ones which populated the screens while I was growing up. If Tom Hanks had been working for a company called “Federal Parcel Carriers,” we would have left Cast Away in the first five minutes—we would never be able to suspend our disbelief.

Given that we live in a world swamped in consumer messages, it would be completely unrealistic to insist that the fictional portrayal onscreen of daily or extraordinary stories be completely lacking in that which surrounds us.

» DANIEL HADLEY

Cannabis and conservatism

As a federal medical marijuana licence holder who is also married to one, I am particularly shocked and dismayed at our new government’s attitude towards pot ["Sowing drug war seeds," March 9]. Their policies will make all of our lives a lot more dangerous.

There is a misconception in our society that anyone who advocates for marijuana legalization must be a silly stoner who just wants to smoke pot all day and have everyone join him. The truth of the matter is, we just want to see prohibition end.

Canadians should really blame the U.S. for most of our marijuana grow-op “problems.” It is their insatiable appetite for drugs that fuels this underground market, and it is their global War on Plants that is bringing in the danger. And since we only provide about two percent of their consumption, we are hardly a “major supplier.”

Prohibition is a cancer eating away at our society. It subsidizes organized crime, corrupts government and police, costs taxpayers a fortune, is totally ineffective and endangers our children by making pot more accessible than alcohol or tobacco.

Prohibition is the disease, and regulation is the cure. But with these right-wing ideologues in Parliament standing in the way of sensible drug policy, it will likely be a while before we are free of this cancer.

Taking the marijuana business out of the hands of teens and criminals and putting it into the hands of responsible adults is socially conservative. Generating tax revenue from that industry is fiscally conservative, and using that money to teach kids why they should avoid drugs is morally conservative. But this so-called “conservative” government would like to leave marijuana in the control of gangsters, and build several new expensive jails instead.

The whole thing leads me to wonder just which side of the law Stephen Harper is really on.

» RUSSELL BARTH

I agree with NORML Canada executive director Marc-Boris St. Maurice that to proceed on the noble path of ending the marijuana prohibition in Canada, it’s wise to limit cannabis commerce to domestic transactions. However, I also feel that great lenience should be shown toward Mr. Baghdadlian and his crew this time given the horrific immorality of this particular prohibition.

In spite of the present Conservative-led parliament, I hope that Canada ends prohibition very soon. The harsh judgment of history will hold the U.S. government liable for its inhumanity in this matter—and a growing number of other ones.

» IVAN SMASON, PhD, J.D.

The impetus for increasing the war on drugs in Canada is obviously coming from the U.S. In 2004, there were 1,745,712 total arrests for drugs, and 771,605 were for cannabis alone. There were 684,319 arrests for cannabis possession. This is a wholesale waste of police and government resources just to police freedom of choice.

They have escalated a war upon otherwise law-abiding and peaceful citizens. If prohibition actually was effective, would not the numbers of arrests be decreasing? Rather than making drugs less available, it seems the reverse is true. Drugs are so popular now that nearly one million Americans per year have to be arrested, perhaps incarcerated, and wholly fleeced by the cost of so-called justice. All the while there are states legalizing cannabis for medical use or making cannabis laws the lowest priority.

Why would any sane person want to import such obviously flawed policies? The Conservatives may attempt to placate Washington by cracking down on cannabis in Canada, but they are only succeeding in demonstrating their true lack of backbone to stand up against the incursion of the narco-fascist police state and undermining our sovereignty by over-reliance upon the U.S. market. Would they have made the same arguments for past injustices where Canada differed in its policies from the U.S.?

The fact that the police admit they have been investigating since 2004 only indicates the Liberals’ lack of sincerity in their so-called attempt at cannabis law reform. Same game, different faces. Oh Canada... oh brother!

» COLIN

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

Send your comments, compliments or criticisms to:

Letters to the Editor,
c/o Montreal Mirror,
465 McGill, 3rd Floor
Montreal, Quebec
H2Y 4B4

You may also fax us at (514) 393-3173, or reach us by e-mail:

Letters to the Editor

All letters should include your name, address and daytime phone number.

If you wish to reach someone in particular, here's a list of people involved with the production of the newspaper and this site.