PROHIBITION AND PROFIT

The Globe and Mail says Canada and the U.S. "are the reason for the
existence" of drug cartels in Mexico, calling them "essentially a
service industry for Canadian and American users" (As Much Our
Problem - editorial, March 6). It's true that if there were no users,
the cartels could not profit from the trade.

However, rather than blaming users, look to the governments that have
enacted prohibitionist drug laws and scarred nations around the world
as a result. Prohibition has hugely inflated the value of outlawed
drugs for producer and transit countries - and for the cartels that
exploit the black market that we in our prohibitionist folly have created.

End prohibition and start intelligent regulation of drugs if you are
really serious about dealing with them. Both producer and consumer
countries would benefit greatly from the reduction in violence that
would follow. And maybe then we could focus on the real issue with
drugs: why some people need to use them in the first place.

EUGENE OSCAPELLA

Ottawa

lawyer, co-founder, Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy,