VICES LICIT AND ILLICIT

Re: Feds should not appeal Insite decision, Jan. 20 I read your
editorial about the federal government considering appealing the B.C.
Court of Appeal decision regarding Insite, Vancouver's supervised
injection site. What Ottawa is effectively saying is that criminal
law trumps health care and that it's better for the person to be
thrown in jail than have his body taken care of. That's as ignorant
as saying alcoholics belong in prison. Drugs are mind-altering and
addictive, alcohol is mind-altering and addictive -- what's the difference?

Liquor kills 40,000 people a year in this country and cigarettes kill
50,000, while drugs kill 2,000. What should be the measuring stick we
use when we decide what should be legal or illegal? Shouldn't it be
deaths? Shouldn't we say legal vices kill 45 times more people than
illegal vices?

Either make them all illegal or make them all legal. It's a no-brainer.

Laura Pow

Vancouver