HIGH TIME TO END THE WAR ON DRUGS

Re: "Help us smoke out grow ops, cops urge" (Gazette, March 12).

It's "high" time to put the story in a larger perspective. The vast
sums of money that the provincial and federal governments devote to
these police operations and to prosecuting those who are involved in
growing and selling cannabis, added to the extremely high cost of
incarcerating those who are convicted must come to an end.
Decriminalizing cannabis would make the dangerous, criminally run
grow-ops in the midst of our neighbourhoods disappear.

Countless studies have shown that people who use cannabis are no more
apt to use it abusively or go on to harder drugs than those who smoke
cigarettes or drink alcohol. In fact, alcohol abuse is far more
harmful to both the drinker and society.

I don't smoke pot and drink alcohol only rarely. I support efforts to
educate people on the dangers of excess and I'd like to see our Quebec
government collect tax revenue on the reported $10 billion the
cannabis industry earns - a bigger business than growing wheat!
Imagine the impact that the expenditure of one per cent of that kind
of tax revenue would have if invested in a public-awareness campaign
on substance abuse.

Let's realize that the decades of criminalizing such a popular human
recreation has not been a deterrent and all that it has done is let
the criminals who risk breaking the law make an awful lot of money
without paying taxes. Surveys have shown that the majority of
Canadians would like to see cannabis legalized. Former prime minister
Jean Chretien came close to bringing in legislation until the United
States threatened repercussions. In these very tough economic times I
believe we all should be revisiting legislation that would remove this
very foolish, very expensive crime from our nation's laws.

David Astrof

Montreal