LET'S PUT AN END TO CANNABIS PROHIBITION

Re: $27 million in marijuana seized across the region, Oct. 14

So what if members of the OPP's Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau
Team 3 Central North Drug Unit "were able to locate and eradicate 50
marijuana plots."

What difference will it make?

Last year's police harvest didn't stop this year's crop and this
year's police harvest won't stop next year's crop.

The recent outdoor "marijuana eradication" efforts by the police are
glaring examples of the futility of prohibition.

Law enforcement efforts are not "stemming the tide" or "taking a bite"
out of drugs, nor will they ever do so. It is all just an expensive
show at taxpayer expense to give the public the illusion that
something is being accomplished.

Why aren't journalists asking important questions, like:

1. Is there evidence that these eradication efforts actually reduce
the availability of marijuana on the street?

2. What percentage of the outdoor crops are police able to destroy?

3. How much do these annual eradication efforts cost? (Diverted police
resources, overtime pay, helicopter use and fuel.)

Taxpayers have a right to know the answers to these questions.

This futile and expensive "eradication" ritual will continue, year after
year, until we finally come to our senses and end cannabis prohibition.
Every major study on the cannabis issue has come to the same key conclusion
as the 2002 Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs:

"The continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being
of Canadians much more than does the substance itself." (Cannabis: Our
Position for a Canadian Public Policy, 2002 - www.SenateReport.ca )

The police need to learn that pot prohibition only supports organized
crime. Every day that we delay the end of this corrupting, harmful
policy, the deeper the tentacles of organized crime infiltrate into
our communities!

Ending cannabis prohibition is definitely in our best interest.

Herb Couch

Nelson, B.C.