POT LAWS FUEL BLACK MARKET

In response to the June 26 article, Pot Growers Were A Team, do the
people of Waterloo Region support marijuana prohibition? Do they know
this means they also support the black market and organized crime?

Marijuana use dates back thousands of years. Its effects are
sufficiently desirable that demand for it will never go away. In
1923, we prohibited the legal sale of marijuana. This immediately
created the black market. In effect, we chose to let organized crime
meet the demand.

Occasionally, society is successful in curbing marijuana production
by engaging in "lengthy and costly drug investigations," such as in
the report of June 26. We don't nearly get all of it off the street.
Meanwhile, organized crime rakes in millions from marijuana users who
pay exorbitant black market prices caused by the drug's illegality.

It's time to legalize marijuana and meet the demand ourselves. By
licensing farmers to grow it and vendors to sell it, we will remove
it from the black market and organized crime grow operations will be
out of our neighbourhoods.

Neil MacNaughton
Oakville