WHAT ARE THEY SMOKING?

Re: The editorial Drug law a bummer (June 10).

Having no economic, environmental, foreign policy or social plans,
the Conservatives are using crime to pander to their myopic,
visceral, misinformed and punishment-happy voter base.

Bill C-15, for example, appears designed specifically to increase
crime. Mandatory sentences will scare off the mom-and-pop pot
growers, who represent direct market competition to the gangsters.

With the little guys out of the game, the big guys will get more
business and profit. This will lead to more violence, which the
police and government will use as justification for even more
draconian laws, more cops with bigger budgets and more powers, and
further suppression of our civil rights and liberties.

The media-addled public is being duped once again.

RUSSELL BARTH

Nepean, Ont.