LEGALIZING POT WON'T INCREASE TOURISM

Well ok, not in the traditional sense. It might bring in people, but
this is not the type of tourism Thunder Bay needs. Thunder Bay needs
tourists who will come here, stay in our hotels, eat in our
restaurants, play at our golf courses and shop at our local stores. I
do not think that legalizing marijuana will bring in this type of
tourist. I can speculate two types of "tourists" that this would bring
in: the first being the hippie pot-head with no money that comes to
our city to crash with their stoner buddies, and contribute nothing to
society.

Mac's might report record-high Cheetoe sales, but that's probably it.
The other so called tourist would be the drug smuggler, coming from
the US or the surrounding Canadian cities, only to legally purchase
pot and smuggle it out of the city. Again, I doubt that drug dealers
would visit our parks, or buy a Thunder Bay T-shirt on their way out
of the city.

Now I know not all hippies and drug dealers are degenerates, so don't
write me any hate mail, but you get my point. We need tourists who
will spend money at local businesses, and the only people who would
benefit from pot sales are the government (we have an anti-smoking
bi-law, remember? So no hash bars). Besides the fact that legalizing
marijuana would make it more accessible to children, cause more
impaired driving and lead to more lung related illness, it doesn't
make sense. Yes, the city would make money from the sale of the drug,
but the incurring costs (production, extra policing, etc) would also
be high. We would also be alienating other tourists who do not want to
come to the "pot-city".

We need a better plan for Thunder Bay rather than relying on a
novelty idea that probably couldn't be legally carried out anyways.
Thunder Bay needs tourism, but this "legalizing pot" idea isn't the
way. It caters to a very small group of people, not at all
representative of the people of Thunder Bay (as recently seen in the
election results).