NO HOPE IN FIGHTING DOPE

The war on drugs has been fought. We lost. So what now?

For starters, we should admit defeat and legalize marijuana.

We have spent untold billions of dollars battling drugs, but, as the
Americans learned in Vietnam, some wars are simply
un-winnable.

In this case, the demand for recreational marijuana is such that
people will find it, regardless of how difficult we make it.

It's like booze was during Prohibition. People wanted to drown their
sorrows, and they did, legally or otherwise. Guys like Al Capone made
millions until the government wised up, legalized alcohol and started
doing what all governments do: tax the product.

That's what we should do with marijuana.

It wouldn't cost much, either. Take a thorough inventory at all our
liquor stores. Toss the worst selling items, split the stores in half,
put booze on one side, dope on the other. Tax them both, and voila,
many problems are solved.

The government gets additional revenue, so maybe they can even lower
the price of gas, and marijuana users get to light up without fear of
getting busted.

Even the police come out ahead, because they can be freed up to chase
after the really bad guys, not the average Tom, Dick and Mary who want
to relax with a toke or two on the weekend.

Besides, if we arrest everyone who lights up once in a while, where
are we going to put them all? Certainly not in jail, because there
aren't enough institutions to house them all.

Times change, and the laws have to change along with
them.

I remember a time when guys wore white shirts, and white shirts only.
I also remember when men wore jump suits, too, but that's a story for
another day.

The point is, smoking marijuana is, like it or not, socially
acceptable by the majority of Canadians. A nationwide poll released
this week may shock you: 53 per cent of Canadians support the
legalization of marijuana.

A 2007 United Nations World Drug Report found Canadians use cannabis
more than any country in Europe, Asia or Latin America.

By legalizing dope, the government also gains control over it, and, by
making it legally available, they cut the street peddlers off at the
knees. They also deal a heavy blow to organized crime, because the
dealers will have a hard time competing with the government. It'll be
the same way it was when people quit going to bootleggers when alcohol
was legalized and made readily available.

This is not a moral judgment I make, because I think mostly dopes do
dope. However, there appear to be a lot of dopes out there.

In my view, booze is a bigger problem for society than marijuana and
making alcohol illegal did nothing to solve, or even lessen, that problem.

The fact is, if you smoke 10 joints a day, or drink a 40-pounder of
rye every day, you will have major problems.

By legalizing dope, and taxing it, we will at least have the cash to
educate people on the inherent risks of doing drugs.

It won't solve all our problems, but we have to start somewhere.