LEGALIZE DRUGS: NDPER

Re: "Drug pushers tarnish park" by Barb Holstrom, July 23 Spectator letters.

In her letter in the July 23rd issue of the Spectator Barb Holstrom
says "Just as in all cities and towns in our country whenever you have
an unsupervised gathering place for our young people a drug element
starts to sneak in. These people don't care what age they sell to."

Sounds like our "war on drugs" is a really big success huh? I'd like
to know why the drug dealers WOULD care what age they sell to? They
will be punished just as harshly if they get caught selling a bag of
weed to a 50-year-old for their arthritis, as to a 10-year-old, so
what motivation is there for them to only serve adults? The war on
medicinal plants costs taxpayers billions of dollars and achieves NONE
of its stated goals. It is easier for children to acquire illegal
drugs than it is to obtain cigarettes or alcohol.

It is time that the government tried a different approach, and
legalized and regulated adult use of controlled substances. The amount
of regulation required should be decided based on scientific evidence
and each substance should be evaluated as to its harm potential and
addictiveness. The Conservative's plan to install mandatory minimum
prison sentences for drug use is ludicrous and will not only cost
taxpayers additional billions, it will increase the violence and the
profits of the illegal drug trade.

Have a hundred years of prohibitionist policies taught us nothing? All
our current policy has done is increase the availability, and variety
of drugs available. It even encourages dealers to come up with more
and more concentrated products for ease of smuggling. When we finally
wake up and start treating addictions as the health problem they are,
instead of trying to imprison our way out of the problem, we might
actually make some progress and reduce the harm drug abuse causes in
our society. At the very least legalizing regulating and taxing adult
use of these substances (especially cannabis) would allow society to
collect the money that the gangs are currently receiving and use it to
help pay for treatment centres and offset the costs of drug abuse. At
least we would be taxing the ones using these products instead of
forcing everyone to pay for a war on drugs that is a proven failure.

Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same
thing over and over and expecting different results. It seems our
Conservative government is insane. Anybody remember Al Capone? How
many "dealers" are selling bathub gin at the skatepark?

Sincerely

Sean Palsson

NDP candidate Selkirk-Interlake