COLUMNIST GETS IT RIGHT

Tom Fletcher (B.C. Losing the War On Drug Gangs, Jan. 13, 2009),
isn't just accurately describing the way things are; he's also
describing the direction things are moving too.

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

Since Canada ignored those recommendations, the problems associated
with prohibiting the relatively safe, socially acceptable, God-given
plant cannabis have escalated. And it's not limited to Canada; look
at what's happening in the U.S. and Mexico.

Millions of North Americans have utter contempt for the continent's
discredited cannabis laws, which are nothing more than government
subsidized discrimination. Millions of North Americans demand
cannabis, and one way or the other, that demand will be honoured.

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, consumers 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 will be changing hands either way.

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado

USA