Toronto judge rejects pot smoking as a religious right

In Toronto, many people that are members of The Church of the Universe have tried to legalize marijuana through arguing that the drug acts as a sacrament. Since marijuana has always been illegal, they have tried to argue that the law does not protect their rights or freedoms regarding religion, as stated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today, a Toronto judge has rejected this idea as a right for the people, as approving it would cause many people to claim the smoking of Marijuana to be a religious right as well. This church refers to marijuana as God's "Tree of Life", and are therefore encouraged to spend as much of their time as possible around this drug, whether it be wearing it, inhaling it, growing it, writing on it, or eating it. On their website, it also says they have the right to use it as sacrament in and throughout their lives, when clearly, they don't. The church founders, Walter Tucker and Michael Baldasaro, and two other men have also been previously convicted of selling marijuana to undercover police officers in 2006/2007, as the officers acted as new members of the church.

In my opinion, marijuana should not be legalized for any reason as it is a highly addictive drug that causes people to hallucinate, and also to plunge into very serious financial problems as they want to buy more. The inhaling or smoking of drugs such as marijuana leads to increased criminal activity and also accidents, as people are not capable of controlling themselves when under such influences. For the reasons above, it can be concluded that marijuana is not in the least way beneficial to the citizens of Toronto, therefore it should not be legalized and kept away from the people.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20110207/judge-rejects-pot-smoking-as-a-religious-right-110207/