AMERICA SHOULDN'T DICTATE DRUG POLICY FOR CANADIANS

Canada's drug laws blindly Why should Canada try to follow the
American-style drug war?

Bill C-26, which died on the order paper at the onset of the
election, proposed minimum penalties for the production, possession,
trafficking and importing/exporting of marijuana, cocaine, heroin,
methamphetamines and other drugs.

It took a page from U.S. policy by seeking to impose mandatory
minimums and harsher penalties for drug crimes. A person could be
jailed for at least six months for the crime of growing even one
marijuana plant if this legislation had passed.

We have seen how badly the drug war has failed in America, so why
adopt a similar approach? Why should we move for an approach in
favour of more imprisonment? The United States has spent billions of
dollars just to lock up people in prisons for small marijuana-related offences.

If anything, alcohol should be made illegal instead of marijuana. You
have control of yourself after ingesting marijuana, but with alcohol
people have blackouts, fight, commit crimes and murder others, etc.

The pressure on the government to pass Bill C-26 was coming from the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Canadians should be free to live how we
want and to make our own laws.

Duane Piche Jr.

Muskoday