November 28, 2012Dear Sir,Makai Dickerson has engaged others several times on Facebook, myself included, in political debates as well as other media outlets. He portrayed himself as some outstanding young candidate, and the Progressive Labour Party perpetually push him as some young prodigy and here we have this mess with him being caught with cannabis and not telling the PLP until after they chose him. Outstanding isn’t quite the word I would use. Nevertheless, let me say this. As far as the actual possession of marijuana in small amounts goes, and I say this as a non-user, I don’t think it is a terrible woe in society. Government could benefit from legalising the tiny amounts and on top taxing it, or simply decriminalising it so no jail time comes with it and the person is not put on the “Stop List”, or fine the person. I say this because I really can’t fathom someone not admitting that despite it being no worse than alcohol usage (and I agree) it is a human vice and a bad habit the same as cigarette usage and overuse of alcohol is.I don’t think we can as a society punish someone for a bad habit that does not harm another. We can punish them for secondary things in regards to this for example, if someone drinks and then assaults someone etc. Let the government make money off of it and put that money directly into programmes for any sort of addictions. Now to tie this into my initial topic. It is against the law as it stands now and he was arrested, period. If you wish to become a leader in this country, you need to abide by the rules and set an example, period. Some people say: “It’s an unjust law and will be changed someday anyway.” While I don’t necessarily agree with the law as it stands, I will never agree that it is unjust because people do not need to use marijuana. It is a choice. It is not like the government is making a law to ban drinking water five days a week.My point is that the law is the law and it is not his place to decide to do so as he pleases. The part that I think is worse than the actual usage is that he knew this before selection for election so the news says. Okay, fine, you’re young, you make a mistake as some are saying. “Oh every politician has skeletons in their closet,” some others are saying. Really? “Oh, it is okay so and so beat their wife, let them be a politician” or “Oh they are a cocaine user, we all make mistakes, let them be a high schoolteacher.” You can’t justify everything away with “oh well, everyone does it”. This is why society is becoming such a cesspool. He broke the law and as far as I am concerned, hid that fact and only spoke up about it now because it was brought to his attention that people were taking it to the media. This is also the young man who his behind totally foolish political cartoons that many view as borderline sexist towards females on One Bermuda Alliance etc. In conclusion I will add that it is things like this that deter truly good young Bermudians from aspiring in politics by the older status quo within Bermuda politics as it makes the rest of us look young, immature and unfit to lead. Makai just took a step back for young Bermudians, but then again when you have people in government who refuse to do a simple drug test, so what can you expect?ROBERT DAVIESDevonshire