DRUG REFORM AIMED AT KIDS

To the editor:

This letter is in response to the article "Recurring theme" posted on
tbnewswatch.com on Jan. 20.

"Nicholson said while critics of the bill say it targets the
individuals who have become addicted or someone who has a few
marijuana plants in their kitchen, he said it is solely about
traffickers and is aimed specifically at organized crime."

One pot plant in a rented unit will get you nine months mandatory jail
time and making pot brownies will get you six months. Look it up. That
is aimed at your kids, Canada, not organized crime.

It should be obvious to everyone now that what Stephen Harper and his
minions have planned is a U.S.- style, for-profit prison system.

This policy has been wildly successful in the U.S.: increased crime
and violence, the largest prison population in the history of
humankind, huge debt and a handful of wealthy jailers getting even
wealthier on the taxpayers' dime.

This is what Harper wants for Canada, and it is coming
fast.

He has already changed the laws to make anything involving marijuana a
"serious" crime, making it harder for your kid to make bail or get
plea bargains.

All evidence shows that Harper's policies will increase crime, further
subsidize the 98 per cent of gangsters who will never be caught,
further contaminate the products being sold to your kids and sink us
into decades of debt, to be paid off by - you guessed it - your kids!

It will also saddle tens of thousands of Canadians - mostly men,
mostly between the ages of 18 and 40, our future work force - with
criminal records that will hinder their ability to travel and find
employment and secure housing.

He will also use this inevitable increase in crime as justification
for future erosions of civil rights and liberties and future
expansions of police powers and budgets.

All this at a time when crime is at a 33-year low. It isn't just
unnecessary; it is insane.

Harper isn't trying to protect Canadians; he is trying to hobble
us.

He is trying to increase crime. He is trying to get Canada into the
U.S.- dominated Inmate-Manufacturing Industry, using your kids as raw
materials.

Serves you right for electing him.

Russell Barth, Federally Licensed Medical Cannabis User, Drug Reform
Analyst and Consultant for Educators for Sensible Drug Policy