MINISTER WANTS CANADIAN DRUG LAWS TO ALIGN WITH AMERICAN

To the editor:

In spite of rhetoric from the Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson (no
less), the Conservative's strategies are not about fighting crime and
safeguarding communities in Canada. They're about aligning Canada's
laws to America's, as per The Security and Prosperity Partnership
agreement; even as the upper echelon of various organized crime
associations continue profiting.

If anything, the tough on crime agenda merely provides another layer
of insulation thereby insuring an ongoing cash flow to organized
crime. Essentially.that's the same as it ever was.

The idea that legalizing marijuana sends the wrong message is an
exhausted ideological fallacy which does not bear out. For if it were
true there would be [1] substantially less young people using drugs,
[2] less clandestine grower operations, [3] less gang presence, [4]
street violence and [5] less drugs in general on the street, etc. In
short, no reason to "get tough" in the first place. We all know this
is not the case.

Herein, is the fatal flaw of prohibition; it does not work. It costs
us large and allows thugs to get rich.

In effect, the Minister of Justice has placed party interests ahead of
the well-being of a nation.

Wayne Phillips

Hamilton, Ont.