DRUG PROFITEERS

I agree with letter writer Jack McGee that our society fails to hold
accountable those who profit most from illegal drug activity. But I
would also point out that billions of dollars from the sale of poisons
like heroin and cocaine are laundered annually by our major financial
institutions.

These same institutions also administer mutual funds, RRSPs and other
investments held by millions of ordinary Canadians.

If we waged a real war on drugs and bust the entire ring -- from
drug-lord parliamentarians in places like Afghanistan, through
traffickers to legislators and banking executives who create backdoors
with lax reporting regulations -- the Canadian economy would shrivel
like a street junkie in withdrawal.

So let our brave and loyal men and women die securing and protecting
opium poppy fields halfway across the world and let some of our most
vulnerable citizens overdose in skid row hotels and alleyways.

That's the price of maintaining our healthy economy.

My younger brother succumbed to a 16-year drug addiction when he died
of a heroin overdose nearly a decade ago. There is nothing healthy
about that.

Jay Black

Vancouver