TOO MANY PEOPLE PROFIT FROM PROHIBITION

Dear Editor,

The thing Mr. Erbacher [Raids won't stop drugs, Dec. 8 Letters,
www.langleyadvance.com] doesn't mention is that politicians are more
interested in pleasing cops and their myopic, fearful, misinformed
voter base than they are in implementing sane policy.

Cops like prohibition because they get money and power to harass the
young, the poor, people of colour, and people with non-regulation
haircuts. Gangsters like prohibition because it makes them rich, and
wealth makes them powerful.

Politicians like prohibition because it gives them someone to blame
and stigmatize for the community's woes. Addiction "experts" like
prohibition because it assures that they will have a long line of
"patients" looking for - or more often, being forced into -
"treatment."

Lawyers love prohibition because there is always a long list of people
to defend, at premium prices. Jailers love prohibition because it
assures their continued existence. And since marijuana has dozens of
proven medical applications - including fighting cancer - Big Pharma
likes prohibition because it keeps their competition from
flourishing.

These people have far more influence over our government than the
citizens of the country ever had, which is why I am sure that no
government will ever legalize marijuana in Canada. Legal pot will come
the same way as same-sex marriage, legal abortion, and medical
marijuana rights: through the courts.

In fact, many court rulings (Parker and Hitzig, to name just two) have
already struck down the prohibition of marijuana as unconstitutional,
but cops, courts, and the government have chosen to ignore this, and
continue to persecute pot users with an invalid law.

So much for Canada being a "just society."

Russell Barth

Nepean, Ontario