BENEFIT FROM LEGALIZING POT: ECONOMY BUZZ IN DRUGGIE TOURISM

To the editor:

Re: Nicholson Says No To Legalizing Marijuana, www.kelownacapnews.com.

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson rejected the notion that
legalizing marijuana would eliminate the incentive for criminals to
grow and distribute the drug, and in the process reduce gang violence.

Surely, on the "upside," he missed out on the very "real" collateral
benefits of legalization, capable of solving B.C.'s problem of
declining tourism from south of the border and elsewhere.

Just think of the tourism potential of a mass influx of drug-deprived
folks descending on the "True North, Free and Legally Drugged,"
pouring untold billions of much-needed tourist dollars into our ailing
economy-with many of them undoubtedly wishing to stay
permanently.

Indeed, that's the kind of "stimulus" (pun intended) that would really
help us all get through the economic recession with a "buzz."

And while we're at it, with Canada's all-purpose Charter of Rights and
Freedoms to the "rescue," the folks intent on legalizing drugs miss no
opportunity to point out that "certain charter liberties" such as
doing drugs, somehow are "crucial in protecting us from the
authoritative tendencies of the state" and thusly prevent us from
being plunged into the grasp of a police state.

Question for the Federal Justice Minister: How could he possibly have missed
all this?

E.W. Bopp

Tsawwassen