Editor:
Re: Burnaby cannabis users could pose a threat to residents, NOW Letters
To Daniel Chang: you need to be no more concerned about a cannabis store than you do a liquor store.
In fact, the products sold at the liquor store are responsible for far more social problems - drunk driving, violence, health problems, depression, etc. It’s a long, sad list.
Equating cannabis with guns is more than a bit of a stretch. Not to belabour a point, but you can’t use cannabis like a gun. Your use of guns as an example shows that you may believe that cannabis is as dangerous as a gun, which is absurd.
I laughed heartily when I read your concerns about the “characteristics” of the purchasers. Firstly, it’s marijuana, not heroin or meth. Secondly, a huge percentage of the population uses cannabis regularly, and has for decades, and the majority of them are not mentally unstable drug addicts with poor brain function.
Your supposition that cannabis users might pose a threat to the community is also absurd.
This may come as a shock to you, but there are already lots of cannabis users in your community. The store won’t start a new problem. Your neighbours who smoke just won’t have to go as far to buy.
If you don’t smoke cannabis, this new store will have virtually no effect on your life. The store won’t sell to children so give up with that argument. If young people are interested in cannabis, they don’t need a store to get it.
Mr. Chang, your concerns are based on fear and lack of knowledge.
Werner Meile, Burnaby
