To the Editor,
Re: Trustee resigns to battle for record checks, Dec. 3.
Newly elected school trustee Bill Bard’s criminal conviction for growing marijuana, and his public dismissal of the seriousness of that, does indeed have something to do with children.
He blamed it on a tenant, who I guess reported it. Why did the tenant report it? We don’t know that part.
If Bard thinks it meant nothing, if it is just laughable, does he continue to grow it? If not, why not?
Now I am wondering if other school trustees are habitual pot smokers too. Nothing has been made clear on these points.
Carol Falkowski, a senior research analyst for Hazeldon, a renowned drug and alcohol rehab centre, states that about 100,000 people seek treatment for marijuana addiction every year. In Minneapolis, half of these patients are under 18.
The chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, Joseph Califano, says that parents who smoke marijuana with kids should be considered child abusers.
Since Bard believes that growing marijuana illegally is OK, and presumably so do the other school trustees, we need to hear from them how old new users of marijuana should be, and why, in their opinions.
If it is such an innocuous drug, why shouldn’t we all grow it and smoke it, all day long, starting at age two?
Donna Allen is bravely providing a priceless service to this community by drawing a line in the sand on this issue.
Nothing is more important than the future health and freedom from addiction of our children.
Madeline Bruce
Nanaimo