In a country that was a leader in providing medical marijuana to patients who applied for it and met the requirements; a country who has been at the forefront of debating whether or not to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, you should not be hearing about how the city of Winnipeg would like to fully regulate all head shops and businesses selling pipes, bongs, and other hemp/marijuana products. However, that is exactly what the city of Winnipeg intends on doing by early 2011. With some city council members claiming such things as head shops being "harbingers of decay", the idea is that these businesses attract a bad crowd and are hurtful to other businesses in the area and the community in general. Anybody who has been to a head shop or walked by one a few times would more than likely notice that these kind of statements are little extreme to say the least. The same types of cliams could be made for liquor stores just as well, who sell a product that has been Government controlled for decades and yet their dispensaries are very seldom talked about as a detriment to surrounding businesses and communities. Head shops, like many others, are small time private businesses which pay taxes, employ citizens and support our local economy. They sell no regulated, addictive or dangerous substances, and as a result should not be regulated as such. This is about supporting small business and keeping old time conservative ideals out of city council. This is Civic Government attempting to be too greedy and too ignorant by assuming a large portion of our cities population will just blindly agree to these claims. This could set a precedence nation wide and so if we stand up, here, in Winnipeg, right now and raise a voice on this attempt at regulating something that is not theirs, then we should have a very good chance at stopping it. Please sign this petition and pass it on to family, friends, co-workers, etc. Spread the word any which way. Thank you.