Letter of Day

HOSTAGES TO DRUG LAWS

Re: Drug laws spark drug wars (Free Press, Aug. 4.)

It's not so much that Canadian governments have been slow to recognize
the obvious, it's that the Canadian government wants to maintain
prohibition. Legislation that renders drugs illicit also legitimizes
other legislation that triggers actions that would otherwise not be
permitted by law.

Forfeiture law, for example, is not triggered by a conviction, but
rather by suspicion thereof. It is a sad day in Canada when an
individual doesn't have to be charged with a crime to be brutalized by
the justice system and those who enforce it.

A legitimate Canadian drug strategy would, by necessity, entail the
federal government passing control of drugs over to the provinces. The
Conservative government of Stephen Harper no more wants a legitimate
drug strategy for Canada than it would want to relinquish office.

As it stands, Canada's drug laws foster organized crime. Without that
crime there would be little to get "tough on." Bloated budgets
earmarked for eradication and enforcement would not be justified.

Nor would the annual costs to taxpayers whose children have access to
any substance of their choosing and are exposed to the crossfire of
various turf wars fueled by this prohibitionist agenda courtesy of the
federal government.

The only benefactors of our prohibitionist drug laws are
prohibitionists, politicians, enforcement and organized crime; we, the
citizens, are held hostage.

Wayne Phillips

Hamilton, Ont.