DOPEY POT LAW

An editorial in the Ottawa Citizen:

For years, the police have claimed that so much marijuana is grown in
Canada that this country has become a major supplier to the United
States. Soft sentences are to blame, the police say, and the
government has agreed: Legislation doubling maximum sentences for
growing pot is expected in the fall.

Before that, however, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler might want
to read the most recent report on the situation ... prepared by the
U.S. Justice Department.

It turns out that Canada is not the largest foreign source of
marijuana in the U.S. -- not by a long shot. "Mexico is the source of
the vast majority" of America's pot, the report says. In fact, Mexican
pot accounted for 98 per cent of all marijuana seized at U.S. border
crossings ... .

Even more important is the report's declaration that the single
largest source of marijuana in the U.S., is the U.S. itself ... .
Growers there can often be prosecuted in the U.S. federal system,
where they are routinely hit with long prison sentences and
devastating asset forfeitures ... . Clearly, Canada's police are wrong
about both the problem and the solution. So why is the government
following their advice on marijuana legislation?