IT'S TIME TO ADMIT THE INSANITY OF OUR DRUG LAWS

Marijuana was recently found growing right under the noses of Britain's
parliamentarians. Royal Park police discovered the plant in Parliament
Square while examining plants believed to have been put there by a group
called Reclaim the Streets.

Dan Gardner's special report on how governments are losing the drug war, has
been quite an eye opener. It seems where drug enforcement laws are minimal,
drug-related crime is also minimal. Could this be why the Canadian
Association of Chiefs of Police has called for the decriminalization of
marijuana possession?

It is obvious from Mr. Gardner's series that the more government tries to
legislate against drugs, the higher the price of the illicit drug goes and
the more potent the drug becomes.

Example: some recent testing of hydroponic marijuana claimed that it had
five times the potency of the marijuana the hippies smoked during the 1960s.
It seems the illicit drug people have ingenious ways of dealing with
government restrictions on their product.

Their ingenuity could give rise to some scary scenarios. Genetic
manipulation of grapeseed gave rise to canola, which has been further
genetically manipulated by companies such as Monsanto.

It's possible to see the gene that causes THC produced in marijuana being
isolated and transplanted into another plant species. THC is the active
ingredient in marijuana that causes the euphoria.

How does a government enforce anti-marijuana drug laws when the THC gene has
been incorporated into other plants, such as in sunflower leaves, pine
needles, rhubarb leafs, carrot tops or household ferns?

Will the police be sent out to weed or harvest gardens at private homes
because THC could be produced in the leaves of DNA-modified cabbage plants
or turnip tops?

It is very unlikely that government officials will want to acknowledge the
sheer insanity of some of their drug laws. More than likely we will see an
increase in drug enforcement laws, more drug-related crimes and a wide
variety of new drug-producing plants in the future.

Harry Valentine, Cornwall