A DIFFERENT TAKE

To the Editor,

RE: OPP preparing for spring marijuana suppression strategy,
Haliburton Echo, May 31

The people most pleased about this eradication policy are the 90 to 95
per cent of growers who will never be caught.

This colossal waste of time and money is not only failing to fix
things, it is, in fact, outrageously counterproductive. If the police
busted twice as many grow ops this year as last year, they would still
only get about 20 per cent of them, one-fifth - probably less.

Every time they bust one grow op - indoor, outdoor, small or big - all
they do is make the ones they don't catch that much more valuable.

Not only is the illegality of pot the very thing that makes growing it
so lucrative, the police are actually subsidizing the entire industry
by busting only a minority of the growers.

They also like to tell the public this is somehow interfering with
organized crime or preventing pot from reaching your kids, but
informed people know better.

Every year, the cops bust more and more people and, every year,
organized criminals grow stronger and pot becomes more widely available.

Is this the Canada you want to live in?

A country where government and cops and media lie to the public and
help gangsters, and deprive people of valuable medicine and billions
in tax revenue? Because that is the Canada you live in right now.

Russell Barth

Educators For Sensible Drug Policy