RCMP'S WAR ON DRUGS MISGUIDED

Dear Editor:

Regarding your article in last week's edition, "RCMP declares war on
grow ops," the people most pleased about this eradication policy are
the 90-95 percent of growers who will never be caught. This colossal
waste of time and money is not only failing to fix things, it is, in
fact, outrageously counterproductive.

If the police busted twice as many grow ops this year as last year,
they would still only get about 20 percent of them, one fifth -
probably less.

Every time they bust one grow op - indoor, outdoor, small or big - all
they do is make the ones they don't catch that much more valuable. Not
only is the illegality of pot the very thing that makes growing it so
lucrative, the police are actually subsidizing the entire industry by
busting only a minority of them.

The cops know they are subsidizing criminals because the evidence to
support what I say is widely available. They do it deliberately to
secure their jobs.

And don't tell me the cops don't make the laws. The police have been
lobbying government for decades to keep the war on certain plants going.

They lobby constantly - with our tax dollars, no less - and have way
too much influence over our governments, at all levels.

They also like to tell the public this is somehow interfering with
organized crime or preventing pot from reaching your kids, but
informed people know better. Every year, the cops bust more and more
people and, every year, organized criminals grow stronger and pot
becomes more widely available.

All this over a medicinal plant that recent science suggests actually
fights cancer.

Is this the Canada you want to live in? A country where cops help
gangsters and deprive people of valuable medicine and billions in tax
revenue? Because that is the Canada you live in right now.

Russell Barth, federally licensed medical marijuana user

Drug reform analyst and consultant, Educators for Sensible Drug Policy

Ottawa, Ontario