GOVERNMENT'S POLICIES WILL HELP ORGANIZED CRIME

Regarding "Tackling crime, protecting Canadians is a priority of the
government;" (Dufferin - Caledon MP David Tilson's column in the July 9
edition of the Citizen).

Tilson is misleading Canadians. Having no economic, environmental, foreign
policy or social plans, the Conservatives are using crime to pander to
their myopic, visceral, misinformed and punishment-happy voter base.

Bill C-15, for example, appears designed specifically to increase crime.
Mandatory sentences will scare off the mom- 'n'-pop pot growers, who
represent direct market competition to the gangsters. With the little guys
out of the game, the big guys will get more business and profit. This will
lead to more violence, which the police and government will use as
justification for even more draconian laws, more cops with bigger budgets
and more powers, and further suppression of our civil rights and
liberties.

The whole thing is a scam designed to make it necessary to hire more cops,
build more jails and spend more taxpayers' dollars on a policy that
further subsidizes organized crime. The media-addled public is being duped
once again.

Is this the Canada you want to live in? A country where cops and
government help gangsters and deprive people of valuable medicine? Because
that is the Canada you live in now.

Russell Barth, Federally licensed medical marijuana user, Patients Against
Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis (PAIDOC)