Pubdate: Sat, 16 May 2009
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2009 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Jay Green
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n455/a04.html

HYPOCRISY ABOUNDS OVER DRUGS

I write in response to the April 23 article "Pot is like currency". 
According to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, the street value 
of cannabis is being used to lubricate the drug trade. Perhaps 
Nicholson might also care to discuss the other businesses and 
departments that are lubricated by cannabis prohibition. The value of 
cannabis in the underground market is staggering, which raises a 
question: why not regulate the substance, thereby taking the money, 
power and control out of the hands of the criminals?

The sad truth is that prohibition protects bureaucrats' own interests 
and creates the crimes it supposedly protects us against.

The hypocrisy behind prohibition must be revealed. While citizens pay 
the price through wars in our streets, prohibition puts hundreds of 
millions into the pockets of our government through seized assets, 
and secures votes with a "tough-on-crime" approach. The lobbying 
industries that would be greatly affected by legalization abound; 
prisons, law enforcement, oil, fuel, alcohol, forestry, 
pharmacopoeia, textiles and industrial fibres are among the many. 
Perhaps Nicholson might explain why the system does not wish to lose 
its main lubricant.

Anti-prohibition supporters do not support drug abuse; rather, we 
realize that when the government tries to handcuff its way out of a 
health and social problem, the hamster wheel continues to turn.

We desperately need to regulate and re-educate in order to remove the 
dealers from our neighbourhoods and the politicians from our homes. 
Once prohibition ends, we will see that the criminals will not be the 
only ones losing jobs.

Jay Green

Lumsden
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom