B.C. ELECTION FEVER FILLS THE STRAIGHT'S MAILBOX

It sounds like the NDP is on the wrong side of the drug issue in this
election, and it should cost them [Straight Talk, April 30-May 7].

Candidates like Gabriel Yiu are from the Stone Age, and judging by a
recent Angus Reid poll, he is opposing what the majority of British
Columbians want and is siding with the minority, who are in favour of
harsher sentences. Gordon Campbell's TV ad on the subject suggests
more prison construction, harsher sentences-the usual conservative line.

How is it that a minority has managed to hold power and maintain this
drug war and all its waste, expense, loss of respect for the police,
and alienation of generations of our youth? The Angus Reid poll was
65 percent in favour of decriminalization and 35 percent for harsher
sentences. I suspect that 35 percent of those people know nothing
about marijuana except what the police put out, which is mostly
fear-mongering with zero factual information.

Terry McKinney

Vancouver