Vancouver failing to consider harms of using marijuana
There was such a public outcry over yoga on a bridge that the premier was “compelled” to cancel it and yet Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem’s plan to license illegal pot shops goes unchallenged by our provincial leaders.
The travesty taking place at Vancouver City Hall should have every parent, educator, business owner, non-pot user, physician, law-enforcement officer and addictions councillor up in arms, as well as the premier and the education minister.
Why the lack of response? There has been a consorted effort to lull the public with rhetoric of “regulate” and “patients’ interests” and a sorry lack of discussion over the impact of commercialization of a substance that has been proven not safe for human consumption. What is missing is the evidence of science.
The gross omission of the risks of harms associated with the use of marijuana for anyone at any age is the offence that should cost Ballem her job, along with her admission that proximity guidelines for daycares were not included in her licensing plan to ease the burden on the marijuana sector in adhering to the rules. The facts:
In September 2009, marijuana smoke was added to the list of compounds known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity by the California Environmental Protection Agency and Environmental Health Hazard Office.
There are over 300 studies about the cell damage done by marijuana. Second-hand marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke. Second-hand smoke kills 600,000 worldwide annually.
Enough said. Write MayorandCouncil@Vancouver.ca today. Pamela McColl, Smart Approaches to Marijuana Canada, Vancouver
U.S. Open course was awful
My sister and I were lucky enough to attend the practice rounds at the Chambers Bay Golf Course for last week’s U.S. Open. Everyone and everything made this an experience we will talk about for the rest of our lives, but the course was a different story.
It was built on the site of a gravel pit and that’s what it looked like. A giant hole in the ground with dead grass from start to finish. Of all the courses to show off the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, this was the worst.
This is the first time the U.S. Open has been contested out west and, judging by the players’ reaction and the grumbling fans, it may be the last for a long time to come. Tom Cattermole, North Vancouver
Safer tanker routes needed
Hurrah for North Vancouver District council’s decision to oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline twinning application.
Canada’s economy is maintained by our natural-resource exports. Each pipeline proponent has chosen the worst routes for those large tankers — Douglas Channel, Burrard Inlet and the Salish Sea. Crazy.
Why allow these ships to travel unnecessarily in these waters, which generate billions in revenues for industry and tourist businesses? They need a route acceptable to the public where the odds and consequences of a spill are minimized. Carl Shalansky, North Vancouver
Condos will be out of reach
Chinese investors’ voracious appetite for our properties has already made owning a house an unattainable dream in Metro Vancouver for the average person.
Now, with the Chinese government declaring that it will be allowing huge amounts of “legal” money to finally leave their country for foreign investment, there is a real possibility that the prices of condos and townhouses will also become so artificially inflated that they will become as unattainable for hard-working young Canadians as detached houses are.
By allowing foreign interests to control what happens in our real-estate market, we are facilitating the irreversible erosion of an essential part of the foundation of the equitable society that my generation and my father’s envisioned for this country — owning a home. Ray Arnold, Richmond