ABOUT THAT WAR ON DRUGS THING ...

Editor,

That was a very nice hurrah piece for the police ("Big profits. Low risk.
Sweet views." June 7 issue).

Once you calm down, perhaps you could remember that 60% of B.C. residents
want marijuana legalized fully, and that you are there to inform and serve
their interests. Or, has Canada become a police state?

I enjoyed the comment, "Although the WVPD appears to be winning the war on
drugs ..."

Do you have any evidence of this? Has the local price for marijuana
increased due to an interrupted or diminished supply?

Would you propose fewer busts by the police indicates this, when they even
clearly admit they are detecting a vast minority of operations?

People will generally take small risks for profit margins in the 1000 per
cent and up category.

The police have no hope of controlling this activity - if they are lucky
they detect five per cent of the activity.

There is no will for a War in your country. Nothing you can say will change
this, and if marijuana is not legalized at some point, we will continue to
receive the same empty rhetoric while coping with a worsened situation as
time passes, I am sure.

Matthew Hulett

via email

Editor,

Re: the article on outrageous profits to be made growing marijuana.

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms,
marijuana would be legal and virtually worthless.

Alcohol poisoning kills thousands annually. Marijuana, on the other hand,
has never been shown to cause an overdose death.

Marijuana may be relatively harmless, but marijuana prohibition is quite
dangerous.

Canadian tax dollars are being wasted on anti-drug strategies that only
make 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.

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

Robert Sharpe

Washington D.C.