DRUG LAW REFORM CAN IMPACT VULNERABLE

Re: MP calls for new drug laws, April 8, 2009.

Congratulations to Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith Martin for once
again having the wisdom and the courage to champion cannabis law reform.

Dr. Martin's intent, to undermine the black market by allowing people
to grow their own pot by merely fining them for doing so, is laudable,
if a little confusing.

Similar ticket and fine regimes in U.S. states and around the world
have saved tax dollars and spared countless of otherwise law-abiding
individuals from crippling criminal records without increasing usage
rates.

Unfortunately, decriminalization also has some unintended
consequences. One is known in drug policy circles as the "net widening
effect." When enforcement becomes less cumbersome and punishments less
damaging, the police are more inclined to enforce the law and less apt
to look the other way.

Decriminalization also tends to exacerbate existing enforcement
disparities, with the homeless, young people and visible minorities
disproportionately bearing the brunt of the net widening effect.

It is important to remember that a $200 fine may represent a fancy
dinner to a physician or member of parliament, but it represents a
month's worth of groceries to too many Canadians.

Hopefully Dr. Martin will achieve his goal of fostering a long overdue
"rational, mature discussion on drug policy."

Surely such a discussion will result in a policy unanimously
recommended by a senate committee six years ago, a policy now
supported by a majority of Canadians, a policy that will seriously
undermine the gangsters; the complete legalization, regulation and
taxation of cannabis.

Matthew Elrod

Metchosin