LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Regarding the Aug. 10th article on RCMP efforts to target local marijuana
grow operations, Canadian tax dollars are being wasted on anti-drug
strategies that onlymake marijuana growing more profitable. The drug war's
distortion of basic supply and demand dynamics makes an easily-grown weed
literally worth its weight in gold.

With money practically growing on trees, any operations destroyed will be
replaced.

And let's not kid ourselves about protecting children. The thriving black
market has no controls for age, making it easier for teenagers to buy
illegal drugs than beer. Politicians need to stop worrying about the
message drug policy reform sends to children and start thinking about the
children themselves.

There are cost-effective alternatives to the failed drug war. In Europe,
the Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by replacing
marijuana prohibition with regulation. Separating the hard and soft drug
markets and establishing age controls for marijuana has proven more
effective than zero tolerance.

As the most popular illicit drug in Canada, marijuana provides the black
market contacts that introduce users to drugs like heroin.

This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol, it makes no
sense to waste tax dollars on policies that finance organized crime groups
like the Hells Angels and facilitate the use of addictive hard drugs. I
regret not having Canadian statistics for you.

If you are interested in a dated comparison of Dutch vs. U.S. rates of drug
use one can be found at:
http://www.netherlands-embassy.org/c_drugstat.html. More recent figures can
be found at: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A., Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation , http://www.drugpolicy.org