LEGALIZATION WOULD PROVIDE A REAL 'STIMULUS' PACKAGE

Re: "Legalizing pot would put gangs out of business," letter, Friday, April 10.

Hurrah for letter writer Dot Davies-Fuhrman, who has found the
"truth" that so long has escaped us all. Legalize marijuana and other
drugs and, presto, gangs and gang violence would disappear virtually
overnight -- and save us billions in the bargain.

But that's not all. In her enthusiasm, Ms. Davies-Fuhrman missed the
collateral benefit of having solved 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
additional 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 so 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. Wow!

E.W. Bopp,

Tsawwassen