DRUG TRADE IS ALSO A CASH COW FOR POLICE AND LAWYERS

RE: There's a downside to drug legalization, March 3. The biggest
downside to drug legalization is that it would undermine the RCMP's
long propaganda war against marijuana.

Science and history show that regulation is the cure to the problems
caused by prohibition. One need look no further than the 2002 Senate
Committee Report on Drugs for proof. If that isn't enough, then look
at the disastrous situation in the U.S., with the most incarcerated
population in the history of the world, or Mexico, where tough
enforcement of drug laws has sparked a cartel war, a bloodbath that
has cost thousands of lives.

The Netherlands has a lower crime rate and a lower drug use rate than
either Canada or the U.S., and the troubles they do have stem from the
laws being a half-measure, rather than full regulation. If liberal pot
laws are failing the Dutch, it is because they didn't go far enough.

But police don't want the "War On Drugs" to ever end because it gives
them all the leverage they need to harass the young, the poor and
people with non-regulation hairstyles. It makes their job relevant and
never ending. Prohibition is a growth industry --as big a cash cow for
police and lawyers and jailers as it is for gangsters. They are two
sides of the same coin.

Russell Barth

Ottawa

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis