SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Re New Deal For Federal Pot Grower (Oct. 12): Research into marijuana
has already proved to be a fast-growing and potentially lucrative
field worldwide, but the Conservatives don't want to fund that.
Financing this research could put Canada in the vanguard of
medical-marijuana R&D, help us discover treatments or cures for dozens
of diseases, and create jobs, but the Tories don't believe this is a
good idea.

The Flin Flon project, on the other hand, is, by most accounts, a
failure. But the Conservatives have decided to keep funding that. They
have to. A court order forces them to continue the program.

They will also continue to fund, and even increase, spending on police
efforts to destroy marijuana plants grown in people's homes and fields
- -- a policy that has proved time and time again to be a colossal
failure. This policy not only wastes taxpayers' dollars and police
time, it actually increases the profits for the thousands of growers
never caught.

I find it compelling -- but not surprising -- that a party that boasts
about accountability and fiscal responsibility would take this
backward-thinking approach to marijuana. But then, the Conservatives
always govern with their ideology and care nothing for facts and science.

Russell Barth

federal medical marijuana licence holder

Ottawa