ANSWER IS TO LEGALIZE POT

Contrary to the opinion of letter writer Susan Van Dreser in Pot
benefits organized crime (April 22), marijuana activists are keenly
aware that organized crime is the major beneficiary of marijuana
prohibition. Criminals control the marijuana industry and criminals
enjoy the profits from an estimated $15 billion per year market. They
set the age limits, price, purity, location and hours of operation.
And they fight among themselves for control of the industry,
inevitably leading to innocent Canadians being caught in the cross-fire.

Ironically, most of the real harms of marijuana are due to ceding the
market to criminals; few harms are due to the drug itself. The vast
majority of users experience no significant health problems. The most
significant risk for most users is being caught and receiving a
criminal record.

Legalizing and regulating marijuana using the alcohol model would cut
billions of dollars of funding from organized crime. Allowing small,
personal grows would eliminate dangerous whole-house grow-ops. And
honest, fact-based education could be effective in reducing teenage
use, as it has done with cigarettes. The prohibition of marijuana is
an abject failure by any measure. It's time to consider real
alternatives. It's time to legalize and regulate marijuana.

CEDRIC SILVESTER

Peterborough, Ont.