POT BILL WORTH CONSIDERING

I was delighted to learn of MP Keith Martin's private member's bill
to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. I'm old enough to
remember the U.S.'s prohibition of alcohol, with its rum-runners,
bootleggers and gun-blazing gangsters.

I'm not about to smoke pot -- my only mind-altering drug is caffeine
- -- but I've come to realize that the U.S.-style "war on drugs" is
just as big a disaster as some of their other wars.

Recently, several Latin American leaders have said that the U.S.'s
war on drugs was killing their people and it was time for a new
direction -- harm reduction. Martin's bill is a small first step in
the right direction for Canada.

Robert McInnes

Victoria