PENDING DRUG CRIME LEGISLATION DRACONIAN

To the Editor:

Re: 'Cobourg roundtable discussions examines justice system' (Feb. 19).

Rob Nicholson, Stephen Harper and the rest of the Conservatives are
waging a petty culture war and wasting millions of dollars on
enforcing unpopular marijuana laws when that money could go into
helping Employment Insurance or perhaps putting people back to work
by growing and selling it legally.

Mr. Nicholson admitted as much, calling indoor cannabis cultivation
"a business" and he knows there are nearly 5,000 legal medical
marijuana patients in this country - and growing - who could benefit
from this. But ideologues like the justice minister have blinders on.
He is threatening once again to re-introduce a draconian drug crime
bill that died during proroguement.

It's a bill so important, Mr. Harper has killed it twice by closing
the House of Commons. And Mr. Nicholson, in his two-bit WWE manager
act, throws tantrums about the Liberal Senate stalling it. The nerve of him.

It's interesting he didn't introduce a bill featuring a mandatory
minimum for sexual assault or child pornography, or maybe legislation
to give tougher sentences when police, RCMP or Canadian Forces
members commit real crimes. Police should take down the perverts, not
the pot plants.

Thomas James (T.J.) Meehan

Kingston