FIGHTING GANGS: DRUG PROHIBITION REAL PROBLEM

Dear Editor,

I guess it no longer occurs to reporters that cops are often
mistaken, misinformed, or just plain lying.

"The trade spreads its tendrils into the economy in several ways,
said RCMP Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong," your story noted [Big money
in B.C. marijuana trade, May 7, Langley Advance].

"Tendrils" denotes a creeping sneaky, tangled up image in the mind.

Prohibition is the real problem, but Mounties always portray it as the cure.

Your story adds, "Armstrong noted that as with street level drug
dealing, gangs keep their members away from the actual grow ops most
of the time."

That is why the mandatory minimum jail sentences being pushed by the
government will be a huge boost to these guys, rather than a
deterrent. Big shots don't get caught, babysitters do.

Jail more losers for longer, and the big shots make even more money.

"Wilde said the excitement of armed invasion is a lure for some gangsters."

And for cops as well, which is why they choose that lifestyle, the
action, the adrenaline. People don't become cops for the poetry or
ballroom dancing, y'know.

Every bust is a subsidy to the 95 per cent of growers who will never
be caught. It stimulates the industry to adapt and grow, assuring
that the Horsemen will have a never-ending mandate, ever-broadening
powers, and constantly-growing budgets.

Not only are the Horsemen subsidizing the gangsters, they are
securing their own jobs as well, and they use the media to do it.

Unlike the Horsemen, at least the gangsters don't have the
unmitigated gall to portray themselves as the good guys.

Russell Barth,

Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User