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Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

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Pot battles

Re Canadians Can Grow Their Own, Court Rules (Feb. 25): If Charter rights let you grow your own pot for medicinal purposes, would Charter rights let you distill your own whisky?

Donald G. Barber, Toronto

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I agree with André Picard (Freeing Pot From Prescriptons – Feb. 25) and Dr. Meldon Kahan (Specialists Worried That Shoppers Will Sell Pot – Feb. 25). Once marijuana is legalized and regulated for recreational use, there is no reason to keep prescribing it for medical purposes, the evidence for which is rather dubious. Pot should be treated the same way as alcohol.

Karen Phillips, MD, Ancaster, Ont.

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As former mayor of the town of Smiths Falls, I wish to point out that the establishment of Tweed Marijuana Inc. in our community has resulted in many positive economic impacts in this town (Legal Pot Will Bring Benefits, But Little Economic Impact – Report on Business, Feb. 18). During the past 10 years, this small town of 9,000 citizens has experienced a loss of close to 2,000 jobs.

When Tweed officials first contacted me about three years ago, and outlined their plans to acquire the vacant Hershey factory, our council responded with total support. We quickly determined that the medical marijuana regime, under the jurisdiction of Health Canada, would be creating new business opportunities in Canada and we concluded, "Why not here in Smiths Falls?"

Tweed's decision to locate here saved the former Hershey plant – a facility of some 480,000 square feet – from demolition, created many local construction and trades jobs to retrofit the building, stimulated new spending here for supplies and services required by Tweed and, most importantly, created well over 100 new jobs.

If the federal government moves ahead on marijuana legislation, it could result in more business opportunities for companies such as Tweed, and new economic benefits and employment opportunities for this area as well as other locations throughout Canada.

Dennis W. Staples, former mayor, Smiths Falls, Ont.

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I find it hard to imagine any government allowing drugstores to sell pot if it in any way reduces the taxes/profit the government might get. However, I can see that drugstores might be allowed to peddle marijuana in pill form.

As for recreational pot, given that it tends to give users the "munchies," it would likely save everyone a lot of time if it were sold at pizza outlets.

Steve Soloman, Toronto

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Death and doctors

Re Parliamentarians Urge Few Restrictions On Doctor-Assisted Dying (Feb. 25): I am a palliative care physician, and a conscientious objector. I understand that Canadian law is moving in the direction of assisted suicide. However, my adherence to a higher, religious law prevents me from participating. The committee's mandatory "effective referral" would require that I not follow my beliefs. I would suggest that an alternate mechanism, such as in Quebec, where access can be assured by a third party, respects both our rights.

A.J. Kirshen, MD, Toronto

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The parliamentary report moving minors and the mentally ill into the category of those who could be included in doctor-assisted death plunges this tendentious issue into further minefields.

When the Charter was passed in 1982, the parliamentarians of the day had no idea that their actions would lead to such an erosion of the value of human life. I was in that Parliament.

The requirement that legislation on this matter be concluded by June is madness. We do a serious injustice to the well-being of society by this legislative rush. Moreover, if this is a whipped vote, as the government has indicated, serious violation will be done to the consciences of those MPs who do want to protect human life in all its forms.

In this critical matter, MPs must be free to make decisions on the basis of conscience, whose dictates are discerned through careful deliberation and not predetermined by the party leadership. The great British parliamentarian Edmund Burke said that to force a parliamentarian to blindly vote against conscience is a betrayal of societal order.

Douglas Roche, Edmonton

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Suffering, ignored

Re First Nations Leaders Declare Public-Health Emergency Due To Lack Of Resources (Feb. 25): Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, whose lands encompass more than half the territory of Ontario, has once again appealed for help to the government to cope with an ongoing wave of suicides by children and to cope with a shameful lack of medical supplies and medical care for their communities.

These conditions have persisted for decades out of sight and mind of the public which shrugs its shoulders because indigenous and not white people are suffering.

The government knows what to do. Why doesn't it just do it?

It is 2016, isn't it?

James Bartleman, member of Chippewas of Rama First Nation, former lieutenant-governor of Ontario

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Uncle Sam, Cuba

Re Why Is Obama Visiting Cuba? (Feb. 25): Konrad Yakabuski lists the near-complete lack of progress in Cuban freedoms and economic development after a five-decades run of U.S. isolation policy. Could this possibly be the case because of that half-century of politically immature U.S. policy, which has turned out to be such an abject failure?

Maybe it's time to try another approach, something a little more sophisticated than turning your back and refusing to talk.

Edward Carson, Toronto

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On the big U.S. bench

Re The Fight To Replace Antonin Scalia (Folio, Feb. 25): Not a single Protestant on the U.S. Supreme Court? Only Catholics (five; six before Antonin Scalia's death) and Jews (three). While Christians represent about 70 per cent of the American population, within that figure Protestants outnumber Catholics two to one. All non-Christian faiths combined – Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. – account for about 6 per cent of the population. Demographically, something is badly out of whack here. It's time lawmakers threw a wider net to bring someone with no religious affiliation to the bench – or at least one not already represented.

Sarah Johnson, Winnipeg

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When The Globe looked at the composition of the Canadian Supreme Court, it also included the religion of its jurists. Now, it does likewise with the American Supreme Court. I am wondering – other readers must be, too – how and why can this make a difference in the decisions reached?

Stephen Kurtz, Windsor, Ont.

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I had no idea of the total lack of diversity on the "big" bench. I don't mean ethnically, gender-wise or religiously. Not too bad there, though there is room for improvement. But educationally. Talk about an establishment! Only Harvard and Yale grads need apply, apparently. High tuition pays off in networks, it seems.

David Checkland, Toronto

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