WHY NOT LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

Re: War is hell and it's here (editorial, Aug. 9).

Who do you thing you are with statements like the last sentence of
your Saturday editorial: "Candidates for this fall's mayoral and
council races had better come prepared."? And what makes you think
Prince George's drug problem can be handled at a municipal level? As if!

If it was that easy, don't you think it would be done already? It
makes me want to puke to think of how much breath those two so-called
high-profile mayoral hopefuls are going to waste when there isn't a
thing they can do about it.

I used to do all manner of dope and the police were not a deterrent
in the least. If anything, they made me smarter. I would do bad
things to support my habit. In fact, the scariest thing was
unavailability, not jail.

Drugs are a worldwide problem and the answer lies in legalization and
education. The drug dealers are not the problem, and quite frankly,
could be part of the cure.

If they already have the distribution network in place, why not
legalize it, supply them with clean dope and charge them income tax
for the education?

The marijuana industry in B.C. alone is over $7 billion a year.
Smoking pot is almost socially acceptable.

But what about hard drugs, you say? Same goes, there's money in it.
They handle it in the Netherlands. We have to be just as smart as
they are, aren't we?

But this is just too simple. The bleeding-heart conservative types,
who are scared to death of change, would never let the lawmakers make
such a quantum leap.

Therein lies the problem, their hypocrisy.

Tobacco probably nets the B.C. government $300 million a year in tax.
And by far the worst perpetrator, alcohol, causes more social
problems than all the world's drugs combined, and it has been legal for years.

Eugene Fetterly
Prince George