POT TAXES LOST

Tom Fletcher's article entitled, B.C. Losing War On Drug Gangs, (The
News, Jan. 12), isn't just accurately describing the way things are.
He's describing the direction things are moving, too.

In the early 1970's the Le Dain Commission report, along with Canada's
2002, Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs' report recommended to
regulate marijuana the same way as alcohol.

Cannabis will be cultivated and it will increase, rather than
decrease. Except for those who profit, nearly every person who uses
cannabis would prefer to acquire it from regulated sources but all
will purchase it in the black market if necessary. It's just a matter
of who consumers give their money to. Right now they are ready,
willing, able and eager to give it to regulated sources, along with
its share of taxes to government, but if government doesn't want it,
the money is changing hands either way.

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado