LEGALIZE MARIJUANA TO KEEP IT FROM KIDS

Re: Don't legalize marijuana, police tell health minister, Aug. 4.

In response to Health Minister Allan Rock's "open mind" on marijuana
decriminalization, RCMP Chief Supt. Robert Lesser has gone on record saying
that the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police's drug abuse committee
does not support decriminalization. Of course it doesn't. Marijuana law
reform would derail the entire drug war gravy train.

There is a big difference between condoning marijuana use and protecting
children from drugs. Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of
marijuana use and frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal
records. What's really needed is a regulated market with age controls.

The lucrative black market has no age controls, making it easier for kids
to buy marijuana than beer. Although marijuana is relatively harmless
compared to most legal drugs -- the plant has never been shown to cause an
overdose death -- marijuana prohibition is deadly. Illegal marijuana
provides the black market contacts that introduce youth to addictive drugs
like heroin. Current drug policy is a gateway policy.

Like alcohol prohibition once did in the U.S. in the early 1900s, marijuana
prohibition effectively subsidizes organized crime, while failing miserably
at preventing use. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, replacing marijuana
prohibition with re-gulation would do a better job of protecting children
than the never-ending drug war.

Robert Sharpe,

Washington, D.C.

Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation