RE: THE PRICE OF PROTECTION

Dear Editor:

Congratulate cops for busting pot people? Why? All it does is send
more business to some other dealer. And there is always another
dealer. You'd have to be pretty naive to think a bust that size is
going to make any significant impact. Pot is everywhere. If anything,
it may get a bunch of people who were going to buy pot frustrated
enough to try some other more dangerous drugs that are more easily
available. Like booze or meth or Oxy.

The bottom line is this: By not regulating all drugs, our government
and police subsidize organized crime and they know it. The number one
thing that would anger the gangsters most is finding out that their
best commodities are all suddenly legal and available through taxed
and inspected outlets. Busting dealers only helps the ones who never
get caught, and the cops only catch a small fraction.

And don't give me this hypocritical, 'What message does that send
children?'malarky. We advertise drugs of all kids during hockey games.
Our whole culture is saturated with drugs, but most of them are legal.

That said, junk food will kill many times more Canadians than all
illegal drugs combined, and marijuana has never killed anyone, ever.

I am all for reducing drugs use in our society, but prohibition is the
wrong way to go about it.

Russell Barth

Ottawa, Ontario