END PROHIBITION AND SUPPORT PEOPLE'S CHOICES

Editor: Frank Bucholtz in his editorial 'Complex challenges,' (The Times,
Oct. 22) surmises: "The public wants to see less crime, more police
availability and safe streets for all. For this to happen, society must
decide what to do about illegal drugs - and at the same time agree that
crime cannot be tolerated."

I agree, and so do the five million Canadian pot smokers who buy from
British Columbia's second largest industry (after construction) -
cannabis. This B.C. agricultural reality employs 250,000 growers and
sellers within the province to service the five million Canadians and
additional millions of Americans.

We are the ones asking for an end to prohibition and the introduction
of a taxed and regulated environment where taxes will be collected,
the law observed, and no one will go to jail for their choice of
cannabis intoxicants.

Ending prohibition is the only way to satisfy those who oppose social
disorder and also understand that adult humans in a free society are
entitled to consume cannabis without criminalization. Politicians who
favour prohibition are the drug lords' best friends.

Having a government-sanctioned war on five million Canadian citizens
who enjoy the peaceful and honest lifestyle choice of cannabis is to
guarantee this nation will be in unnecessary turmoil and conflict.

No nation can exist peacefully if more than 16 per cent of the adults
in the nation are made third-class citizens, subject to arrest and
detention for their peaceful and personal behaviour.

Marc Emery, leader, BC Marijuana Party