A word of advice to pot-smoking Mounties

Having had the pleasure of twisting one up with a few of you folks years ago, I know that most of you must be torn by what's happened to Cpl. Francis over there in New Brunswick.

You know the culture and you know what to expect.

Cops, doctors, teachers, judges,... everybody figures out how to smoke their two doctor-prescribed legal medicinal marijuana joints every day without ending up on the front page.

 I'm sure Cpl. Francis could have figured it out too.

But for Ron Francis this isn't just about smoking a joint. It's about PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Shell shock, as we once euphemised what happened when a person had seen more grief and gore than they could handle.

It manifests in many ways. Addiction. Depression. Substance abuse...

It's rampant among cops and soldiers.

Because those are the folks who see the most grief and gore.

Canada crucifies pot-smoking Mountie

Ron Francis is a veteran RCMP officer who happens to have a medical marijuana prescription.

According to Francis, and obviously the prescribing physician agrees, he needs the pot to treat his post traumatic stress.

No less an authority than Justice Minister Peter MacKay has chimed in to denounce Cpl. Francis. MacKay has just recently taken over the Justice file, having spent many years as Canada's Minister of Defence. Ironically, the recent suicides of three Canadian Forces members has pushed PTSD into the Canadian news pages as never before.

The latter story points out that the last 70 suicides in the Canadian Forces, most of which occurred on the watch of Peter MacKay, have never been adequately investigated.

Is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder responsible for this wave of suicides?

Mr. MacKay obviously doesn't think so.

The official line of the law-and-order fetishists in Ottawa is this; suicides of servicemen and cops are a regrettable inevitability.

Smoking a legal physician-prescribed marijuana cigarette to manage your PTSD will not be tolerated.