CHANGE FEDERAL LEGISLATION, NOT MUNICIPAL BYLAWS

Editor:

The recently enacted bylaw by North Cowichan council to have landlords
police their properties for marijuana "grow-ops" places crime control
efforts in the wrong hands.

Hopefully, Ladysmith town councillors will not be seduced by the same
flawed thinking.

People grow marijuana for profit because federal politicians refuse to
repeal the laws we have today, despite the recommendations for
decriminalizing cannabis from two commissions of inquiry in 1969 and
2002.

Our current laws against marijuana foster a perpetual black market and
all the problems associated with it. Organized crime, violence,
property damage, theft of electricity and money-laundering will
continue to thrive under our repressive laws.

It is futile to recruit landlords to enforce our failed prohibitionist
policies.

It makes far more sense to have the Union of British Columbia
Municipalities lobby the federal government to decriminalize the
possession and cultivation of cannabis.

John Anderson, PhD

Criminology Department, Malaspina University-College,

Nanaimo, B.C. Canada