POT BENEFITS ORGANIZED CRIME

Re: Pre-teens light up at pro-pot rally (April 21).

In the fervour to celebrate personal freedom on a fine spring day,
organizers and participants of the rally in support of marijuana
legalization forget one crucial factor: the corporate structure they
support. Follow the chain from toker to producer and who do you find?
Organized crime. If organized crime is too abstract a name for you,
replace it with murderers and then recall some of the victims,
including young men in our own city.

Each person who smokes a little weed, each parent who turns a blind
eye to his or her child's use of street drugs, including marijuana,
needs to recall his or her own contribution to the wealth of the
organized crime hierarchy. You make it possible. No matter how little
or how much you contribute as you claim your personal freedom to use
a "harmless" drug, it supports the grave social harm promoted by
groups like the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Indian Posse and Mad Cowz.

So work for the legalization of marijuana, if you will. In the
meantime, until it does become legal, each time you take a hit,
recall the lives lost to violence so that you can have your little
high. Better yet, postpone the pleasure until it really is harm-free.