Pubdate: Sat, 01 Apr 2006
Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Now Newspaper
Contact: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/forms/lettersform.html
Website: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462
Author: William Bradley
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n381/a03.html?2206

PROHIBITIONISTS STILL RELY ON SCARE TACTICS, ASSUMPTIONS

The Editor,

Re: "Grow op searches good, if not abused," the Now editorial, March 25.

The problem is in your ending paragraph where you say the following: 
"Grow-ops and other drug activities are a scourge upon the land and 
all law enforcement entails the weighing of public interest against 
personal freedoms. We must watch that the scales don't tip too far in 
favour of enforcement."

It's already in favour of enforcement, to an epic scale. Prohibition 
of substances actually causes the crime, not the substances 
themselves. I realize with all the propaganda floating around 
misconceptions are easy to absorb. The idea that cannabis causes 
schizophrenia and potency increases of mathematical impossibility are 
truly what reveal a prohibitionist's argument for what it is: scare 
tactics based on their own interpretations of studies that even the 
scientists conducting the study didn't come near to concluding.

We don't need, nor have ever asked for a "nanny state." So why do we 
have one? Especially when the majority of Canadians favour 
legalization. Remember a grow op is only dangerous because it's 
illegal. Orchid growers and tomato enthusiasts seldom get thrown in 
jail. Nor do beer brewers, anymore.

William Bradley

Kitchener, Ont.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom