SOME LAWS RIDICULOUS, INHUMANE

Dear editor,

In addition to the fact that one is sometimes required to dodge
bullets, another negative aspect of being a police officer is the
obligation to enforce ridiculous, inhumane laws long overdue for repeal.

The recent raid on Mark Russell's Mid-Island Compassion Club stands as
a perfect example of the idiocy that our gutless politicians are
forcing upon the police, Mark Russell, and at least 85 local people in
need of medicinal marijuana.

What possible good arises from such an expenditure of valuable police
time, charging Russell for aiding ill people, and driving his clients
to purchase their pain relief from various sources in the black market?

Courtenay RCMP Constable Derek Kryzanowzki admits that the
investigation took over a year to complete, that it wasn't instigated
by a complaint from the general public, and was self-generated through
one of the members in the drug section.

Presumably this was an RCMP member who values compliance with our
inane drug laws far higher than he values the compassion that has been
exhibited by Mark Russell.

Since our politicians have not changed the law to reflect the
mountains of evidence in favour of using marijuana medicinally, maybe
our local detachment could quietly refuse to help the zealots in its
midst to raid the Compassion Club.

A wish for the year 2007 -- may our local police force bravely
continue to dodge bullets -- but at the same time cease to make the
biker gangs richer.

W.L.M. Wilson,
Qualicum Beach