LEGALIZE? BUT WHERE WILL IT END?

Re: Put this in your pipe and smoke it (Letters, NewsLeader, Feb. 9)

Mr. Leach writes that all that is needed is marijuana to be legalized
for 90 per cent of the related problems to vanish.

To take what appears to be a shortcut to a tiring problem is not
necessarily the solution.

We don't have to become like Mexico. What we need to do is enforce the
existing laws, maybe introduce some even tougher ones and make sure
they are carried out without watering them down along the way.

Legalizing marijuana would only create a domino effect to our existing
problem. Where is it going to stop? What are we going to legalize
after that? Are we going to have a country full of citizens with fried
brains?

Mr. Leach says marijuana is a valuable crop because it is fast
growing, is useful for medication, textiles, and it's superior to
trees in the production of pulp for paper.

Maybe it is useful for medical reasons, but as far as using it for
textiles and paper we in Canada have an abundance of forests to take
care of that.

However, we might be able to turn marijuana into a very attractive
toilet paper and make use of it in its appropriate location.

The writer's last comment was, "maybe we could even smoke our
newspapers." I'm sure that was just a humorous comment, but it goes to
show us that we should be careful to what we put in our pipes!

Frank Di Cesare

Burnaby