Pubdate: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB) Copyright: 2005 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.winnipegsun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503 Author: Gerry Smith Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor. PROHIBITION MUST GO Re: Legalize pot, says Liberal (Canadian Press, March 4). Finally someone has said what I have been thinking since I heard the news. Four needless deaths. How many more must die for this? The government is sitting on a huge untapped source of revenue while good men and women are dying for want of better public policy. They needn't have died fighting a "war" that was lost a long, long time ago. One might make the argument that the man who shot them was going to cause trouble some day, somewhere, anyway. It shouldn't have happened because of this. I am not a user. I don't like the taste, so to speak. But we've passed the point where this substance is more readily available to school children than cigarette tobacco. Why does our society value prohibition over tolerance? If the government would regulate this "problem" that is not going to go away then perhaps our police forces could find something more constructive to do. They are only enforcing the law and, in this case, the law is an ass. Gerry Smith Winnipeg (Check out today's Weston column.) - --- MAP posted-by: Beth