FEDERAL DRUG POLICY MORE HARMFUL THAN CANNABIS

Massive marijuana-growing operations like the one busted recently in
Chilliwack would cease to exist if the plants could be grown legally
outdoors. Because of prohibition, growers are hiding marijuana
indoors, booby traps are set to prevent theft and police hours and
paycheques are inflated at a cost to taxpayers.

The federal government's continued prohibition of cannabis causes
more harm than does the substance itself. That was the conclusion
after intense and thorough study of the topic by the Senate Special
Committee on Illegal Drugs in 2002.

It's abundantly clear that our ineffective drug laws waste money and
destroy lives. Even worse, gangsters are making enormous amounts of
money thanks to prohibition, a policy that inflates the price and the
demand for marijuana.

Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, and it isn't working for drugs.

Jodie Emery

Editor, Cannabis Culture Magazine and B.C. Green party policing critic,

Vancouver