RE: LEGALIZE IT, TAX IT, FORGET ABOUT IT (Coast Reporter, Sept. 4)

What Brent Richter fails to realize is that The War On Plants was
never meant to be won, it was meant to be continuous. It isn't about
public safety, it is all about control.

This war gives the police all the leverage they need to harass the
poor, the young, people of color, and people with non-regulation
haircuts. It increases their budgets every year, broadens their
powers, and makes their jobs never-ending, and ever-expanding.

When they bust growers, they subsidize the ones they don't catch. This
makes the problem grow, which gives them the reason they need to
demand even more power and money.

Marijuana will never be legalized by legislation. Legal marijuana will
come the same way gay-marriage rights, abortion rights, and medical
marijuana rights came to us - through the courts.

As for "decriminalization," it is a non-word meaning a non thing.
Something is either legal, or it isn't. The very idea still smacks of
prohibition - the Decrim brand is just Prohib Lite. We need to have
pot being as legal a coffee, tobacco, soft drinks, energy drinks, and
alcohol - all of which should be for adults only!

But if we accept that the government has any say over what we can do
with our own bodies, then we must accept their ownership. That means
the government owns us - like pets, livestock, or slaves - and that
we have only the rights that they grant. No one who cares about
fundamental freedoms would accept that.

Russell Barth Federally licensed medical marijuana user Nepean, Ont.