CRACKDOWN ON POT SURE TO BACKFIRE

Re: Harper Wise Not To Soften Pot Laws, letter to the editor, April 5.

Dr. Morris Givner appears to be surprisingly misinformed on the
current state of science with respect to marijuana and its harmful
effects. He should be reminded that one-third of Canadians have tried
marijuana, so unless he is prepared to pay for jail space for
one-third of the population, it might be appropriate to rethink our
current drug policy.

Even accepting at face value the harms which Dr. Givner cites (lower
response times, decreased motivation, heavy "social and medical"
costs), there is still a long way to go before a case can be made for
jailing users of marijuana. Alcohol causes all these things, and we
don't jail those with alcohol abuse problems.

The bottom line is this: drug abuse is ineffectively dealt with by
criminal sanction. Making drugs illegal doesn't make them
unavailable, and putting drug users in jail only strips their lives
of anything positive without doing anything to help their addiction.

Jean-Claude Killey, Toronto.