A sad day

[sagewood]

Whether or not mj is legalized seems irrelevant at this time. I know that as I watched the memorial yesterday that I was darn proud to be an Albertan, as well as a Canadian. Our national police force showed themselves at their best and the eulogies could have been told about any young Canadian who believed in right over wrong. The total outpouring of sympathy and support from the average Canadian was massive and showed what this country is made from--common ordinary people, believing in the common good for others. That one deranged and evil man could inflict so much pain on so many only speaks to the place that our civilization has evolved to. You must realize that as many people who mourned yesterday, there would be those in the criminal element who would think that lunatic did a good job. It is that which we must stand vigilant against. And those of us in the country are not immune to this criminal element--we all know someone in our neighborhoods who is unstable and still likes to 'play' with guns in order to show their strength--they are usually cowards and bullies when you take their ammunition away from them.

As far as growing pot--think of all the sloughs we could 'rent' out. We would never need to worry about our bottom line again and agriculture might just prosper--say a 10% share of the marketed crop..that which we could not sell, we could smoke and then if things were bad in agriculture, none of us would care! I am being facetious here!

[sagewood]

as I watched the procession of police officers making their way to the memorial I couldn't help but think that our country could be policed by half that number if the justice system was overhauled and did what it was supposed to do in the first place.

[sagewood]

Yes, I agree, we could have less police officers if when they arrested someone and those were found guilty actually stayed in jail, then someone like Roszko would have been behind bars and not allowed to terrorize a community and end the lives of wonderful young men. Then too, if the so called 'justice' system actually worked and handed out justice, the existing force of police could actually have time to help the communities who are being over run with crime that is now overflowing from our prosperous and bulging cities and towns...the politicians got up at the memorial and spouted platitudes and personally I found it offensive that politicians of any stripe were allowed to cry their alligator tears and then walk away and do nothing to change our obviously flawed system--but I digress...

[WildwoodsDoc]

Seems that about 70% of fellows who go to the bars are on weed at least, according to my daughter who says it is so frustrating that there are hardly any drug free males. Their stories are all the same. "We work hard, are sore and need to feel better to be able to go to work the next day." Garbage, with all the laws it seems more and more are on some kind of drugs. Our society seems not to care what is basically happening, the minds of the young are turned to air heads, not thinking clearly. To them it seems everybody is doing it, so it is okay. It sucks. So many wasted minds. I blame the parents, not caring for moral values and respect of fellow man, who haven't taught their children with the help of Christian values.

[WildwoodsDoc]

I agree in part with your post, however, I personally know many good parents who have done everything possible to raise their children in a good home with excellent values, and have seen their kids get involved with meth and other drugs, so it isn't always bad parents whose kids are on drugs .

Meth is a huge problem as I have said here before, first time users have a 40% chance of being addicted to it, and the ease of obtaining the ingredients is scary. In my community there have been many cases of 11 and 12 year olds being brought into emergency OD'd on the stuff.