CANNABIS AND CONSERVATISM

As a federal medical marijuana licence holder who is also married to
one, I am particularly shocked and dismayed at our new government's
attitude towards pot ["Sowing drug war seeds," March 9]. Their
policies will make all of our lives a lot more dangerous.

There is a misconception in our society that anyone who advocates for
marijuana legalization must be a silly stoner who just wants to smoke
pot all day and have everyone join him. The truth of the matter is, we
just want to see prohibition end.

Canadians should really blame the U.S. for most of our marijuana
grow-op "problems." It is their insatiable appetite for drugs that
fuels this underground market, and it is their global War on Plants
that is bringing in the danger. And since we only provide about two
percent of their consumption, we are hardly a "major supplier."

Prohibition is a cancer eating away at our society. It subsidizes
organized crime, corrupts government and police, costs taxpayers a
fortune, is totally ineffective and endangers our children by making
pot more accessible than alcohol or tobacco.

Prohibition is the disease, and regulation is the cure. But with these
right-wing ideologues in Parliament standing in the way of sensible
drug policy, it will likely be a while before we are free of this cancer.

Taking the marijuana business out of the hands of teens and criminals
and putting it into the hands of responsible adults is socially
conservative. Generating tax revenue from that industry is fiscally
conservative, and using that money to teach kids why they should avoid
drugs is morally conservative. But this so-called "conservative"
government would like to leave marijuana in the control of gangsters,
and build several new expensive jails instead.

The whole thing leads me to wonder just which side of the law Stephen
Harper is really on.

RUSSELL BARTH