Chronic injustice

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is to be commended for making the case for marijuana decriminalization [“Quebec’s happy stoners,” July 18]. Jailing citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis is not a good use of tax dollars.

There is no evidence that punitive marijuana laws do anything other than burden otherwise law-abiding Canadians with criminal records. Consider the experience of the United States, the former land of the free and current record holder in citizens incarcerated.

Based on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union countries have decriminalized marijuana. Despite draconian penalties and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country.

The latest drug war fiasco to come out of the U.S. is “compassionate coercion.” This expansion of zero tolerance does not distinguish between occasional use and chronic abuse. Jail sentences and open-ended drug testing will be applied exclusively to consumers of non-traditional drugs like marijuana. Alcoholics and nicotine addicts need not worry about President George W. Bush’s legendary “compassion.”

Marijuana prohibition is not based on health outcomes, but rather cultural norms. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Simply put, marijuana represents the counterculture to misguided reactionaries intent on legislating their version of morality. Canada should follow the lead of Europe and Just Say No to the American Inquisition.

The results of a comparative study of European and U.S. rates of drug use can be found at: www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf
-Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance,
Washington, DC

Gay shame

Here’s my suggestion for the insect of the week for the gay pride issue of the Mirror. I nominate the closing of L’Androgyne bookstore.

L’Androgyne bookstore was a viable institution in Montreal for over a quarter of a century and the legacy of some of the pioneer activists of the Montreal gay community. Think about this for a moment and you’ll come to the conclusion that the closing of the bookstore is a slap in the face of the community.

Bernard Rousseau Rousseau of Groupe Priape said himself that the closing wasn’t the result of bankruptcy; in the last year, in fact, he doubled sales at the store (see the August issue of Fugues magazine).

Why not just rearrange the situation a bit: move the store to a street with better pedestrian traffic (Ste-Catherine), use a smaller space and reduce the business hours a bit (benefit from a reduction of costs) to keep L’Androgyne alive.

It’s strange that a small community like Ottawa can keep a gay bookstore open (After Stonewall) but a North American gay Mecca like Montreal can’t. Judging by the dozens of books grabbed by shoppers at the liquidation sale, the readers and buyers were there for L’Androgyne. This is a sad situation on the eve of our gay pride celebrations.
-Richard Kozlowsky

Wellington St. pros

Regarding last week’s letter from John C. Underwood, Wellington Sreet isn’t all that bad. I’m originally from Vancouver and now moving to Verdun, just off of Wellington. I’m looking forward to miles of walking along the water and I love browsing through the second-hand stores and thrift shops in the area. There are no clubs or bars so at night it’s quiet. Seniors are quiet too.

Mr. Underwood says the area’s full of “feeble” people; well there are feeble people and freaks all over Montreal. Plus, it’s only 10 minutes to downtown by metro, the apartments are large and rents are still low.

But it’s only a matter of time before Verdun becomes gentrified. Move to Verdun before the yuppies catch on.
-Avrom Osipov

Clarification

In the photo of five girls that accompanied our story on the launch of the Web site exxxtravagant.com [“Rock in the key of XXX,” July 25, p. 21], the girl on the far left and the girl on the far right are models, not naked models, and as such do not appear on the site unclothed.