GROW-OP HYSTERIA MASKS NEED TO LEGALIZE WEED

Local police can play Elliot Ness all they want, but they will never stamp
out marijuana production in the Lower Mainland.

The star character in the old TV series The Untouchables used to race
around during prohibition days smashing whiskey stills and boarding up
speakeasies.

It made for wonderful television, just as today's police crackdown on
marijuana grow-ops makes for wonderful headlines.

In real life, alcohol prohibition was a total failure, just as today's
prohibition on pot is a ludicrous waste of time and money.

We can't lay all the blame at the feet of the cops, who are merely carrying
out their duty in enforcing Ottawa's absurd marijuana laws.

But the anti-pot zealots among the men and women in blue aren't helping
with their current campaign of preposterous fear-mongering about the evils
of pot.

RCMP Inspector Richard Barszczewski, for example, must have the 1936 howler
Reefer Madness on a tape loop.

In a recent Province article, he trotted out the same lame arguments used
in the notoriously funny anti-pot movie.

"It's important to let our youth know that marijuana will negatively impact
their lives," Barszczewski ominously warned.

Yes it will, if taken to excess, just like booze. Or if the youngster just
happens to be one of the 600,000 Canadians nailed with a criminal record
for possessing small amounts of pot.

If the youth is one of the millions of other Canadians who don't get nailed
when they put match to spliff, the impact of toking up is something less
than negligible.

It certainly didn't "negatively impact" the careers of such folks as
Stockwell Day, Ralph Klein, Kim Campbell, Jean Charest, Alexa McDonough and
Gilles Duceppe.

Every one of these prominent politicians has admitted to smoking pot in
their youth.

And you can bet your last loonie that plenty more inhabitants of our
Parliament and legislatures have or continue to smoke joints, sharing the
pastime with ordinary folks from all walks of life.

Such as cops, lawyers, Crown prosecutors, teachers, corporate suits,
talk-show hosts, journalists, and even the odd judge or two.

Compared to the evils of booze - the preferred choice of Ontario Premier
Mike Harris in his youth - marijuana is a lightweight.

Used in moderation, as alcohol should be, it is a relatively benign and
harmless drug.

The real evil surrounding pot is the underworld crime that results from
government and society's refusal to licence its manufacture and sale.

Precisely the same thing happened in the days of alcohol prohibition, which
led to the legal sale of booze and ended the black-market murder and mayhem.

This is a damned simple lesson, but one 21st century North America still
hasn't learned. We're still pandering to the 1920s notion that pot will
make us all crazy, turn men into killers and women into floozies.

It is way past time to discard such hoary thinking and legalize the
manufacture and sale of marijuana. This would send the crime industry
packing and end the colossal waste of valuable police and court resources
on a futile exercise.

Decriminalization won't do. Handing people simple fines for possession
still leaves the entire criminal scene intact.

At the urging of Tory Senator Pierre-Claude Nolin, the Senate agreed this
month to "reassess Canada's anti-drug legislation." Perhaps that will bring
sanity to the debate.

But nothing will change unless the federal government stops cowtowing to
America's spectacularly unsuccessful "war on drugs" and amends Canada's
criminal code.

Anything less simply means more live replays of the Untouchables fantasy.