POT DRINKS AT A SHOP NEAR YOU SOON

The only way to truly follow the trajectory of drug marketing is to read the financial news. The old adage of "Follow the money" is as reliable as it has always been.

Reprinted in this morning's Vancouver Sun, the Financial Post shrieks with glee that a major American beer and wine company has just paid a small fortune for a significant share of a Canadian marijuana firm. The writers call this 'a bold move.'

The next investors in our burgeoning marijuana industry are Big Tobacco and Big Pharma. It only makes sense, doesn't it? Aren't we just kicking ourselves for not getting on the hay ride earlier, you know, like so many of our former politicians did.

Oh well, for those of us in the recovery business, I guess we'll have our hands full and we'll be busy and making scads of money too. Ain't life grand? And it's going to be so much fun working with addicted eight year old children. I guess recess will be mandated for all residential programs. And maybe reading and writing and arithmetic. I can see it now. Provincial governments will all have a new department called Mental Health, Addictions and Education. Tidy.

TELL IT TO SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T CARE

An excellent op-ed piece is headlining in the Vancouver Sun today. It is written by Dr. Jessica Ross and it appeared originally in the National Post under a different title.

This morning, in the Sun, the item is called "Kids must be told the full story on pot's health risks."

It is a great read full of both professional and home truths. And the basic advice in the title is appropriate.

But here's another another suggestion about to whom we might tell the full pot story.

We could tell a former Premier, Attorney General and Health Minister of the Province of British Columbia all of whom have major interests in private "medical" marijuana companies.

We can all hardly wait until we are elected to public office so we can retire as soon as possible and become dope dealers  to children of 8 and 9.

ODD SQUAD GALA & CONFERENCE

THE ODD SQUAD has been in business for 20 years now re-directing kids at risk into productive, creative and clean and sober lives.

The Society's 20th Anniversary Gala includes a huge conference with a galaxy of powerful and informed speakers.

The BIG EVENT is Friday, December 1st. Be there or be square.

Please go to their website and click on the EVENTS tab to get the full story.

More importantly, get some tickets and help support a great local group of dedicated police officers, both active and retired, who have been nationally recognized for extraordinary commitment to their community.

BIG PHARMA - BIGGEST DOPE DEALERS OF ALL TIME

Nicholas Kristof authors a blistering op-ed in The New York Times today. The piece is titled, "Drug Dealers in Lab Coats."

The sheer numbers (profits, bribes, deaths) are staggering and the malfeasance  and lack of public or political corrective action is sickening. 

The article is an excellent follow-up to the work of the Washington Post and "60 Minutes."

Canada is no different.

We scurry to revive overdose victims on the street. That's a good thing. But we offer them no hope for treatment, recovery and a sober life and we would never dare to sue pharmaceutical corporations, or pharmacists or doctors. My goodness no. But that is exactly what some folks are now doing south of the border.

Attention must be paid.