PROHIBITION MUST GO

Tuesday, May 19 will remain forever as one of the happiest days of my
life. The editorial "Sober context to bust" is the first time I have
noted such genuine information, wisdom and reality concerning the war
on drugs as being a hopeless, self-contradicting enterprise in a
respected medium.

"Prohibition is not effective."

If only the people in power will listen to this message and accept it.
I have been advocating the folly of prohibition for over 40 years.

A few examples of support:

Legal Experts Against Prohibition, with thousands of members; police,
lawyers, etc. who are opposed to WOD.

The American officials of drug control have been lying about marijuana
for almost a century.

United Nations, several years ago, estimated the value of trade in
drugs to be $800 billion, so great a number that it took me quite a
while to convince a colleague that the estimate was accurate. By this
time it is possible that the figure is $1 trillion. This fantastic
figure accounts for the equally fantastic behaviour of drug criminals.
Marijuana crime annually costs 52 per cent of government's drug war
expense. Taxing sales of marijuana would provide billions of dollars
in tax revenues and lower costs of police for prohibition.

If this seems strange, it is no stranger than the church's support of
the burning of witches which is no longer regarded with favour. At
that time, one leading church officer boasted that he had assisted at
the burning of 10,000 witches. Ignorance, superstition and fear are
still supporting the endless brutality of our "witch hunts" which we
call prohibition.

A majority of Canadians as a whole support the decriminalization of
marijuana.

Thank you, Mr. Editor, for sharing your concise wisdom on this topic.
Prohibition must go.

Gilbert Currie-Johnson