Pubdate: Mon, 26 Jul 2004
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: The Windsor Star 2004
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Russell Barth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

LEGALIZING POT WOULD FREE UP DRUG SQUADS

Recent RCMP stats show that Canada only supplies a small fraction of
the endless American appetite for marijuana. Most of the pot that the
U.S. consumes comes from the U.S. or Mexico. This proves what
anti-prohibition activists have known for decades: The U.S. government
lies about marijuana.

But it seems Canadian police will be busy for ever and ever. Their fun
jobs of destroying gardens will never go away as long as prohibition
is in place, and prohibition is likely here to stay under this corrupt
Liberal government.

With police outnumbered by growers by about 1,000 to one, it is no
wonder they keep saying they need more money and more officers. This
is a big, fun, endless game to them.

The police tear down over a million plants a year, and the game just
keeps getting bigger. More people grow, more people use, and kids can
buy it in school yards. Clearly, prohibition is not working unless, of
course, you are in the black market in which case it is both fun and
profitable. But for all the other people in Canada, it is just an
expensive, pointless, dangerous fiasco.

Prohibition didn't work with alcohol in the 1920s and it is even less
successful now. Can anyone name one good thing to come from
prohibition?

If Canada were to legalize and regulate pot, we could tax the
black-market guys, make them pay for their hydro and make them grow in
industrial areas instead of suburban homes, and we could give all
these "elite drug squad officers" new jobs as border patrol. Maybe
then our police could keep U.S. guns out of Canada.

Russell Barth

Ottawa 
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