LEGALIZATION IS HELPFUL

RE "Minister fears legal brothels, crime too cosy" (March 2): Canada's new
justice minister could be the best friend that Canadian drug dealers and
pimps ever had.

First, Vic Toews wants to impose mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana
growers. All history, science, and common sense show that this will
increase the profits of the dealers we don't catch, which will increase
competition, and therefore increase gun violence. Apparently, Toews is a
big fan of people like Pablo Escobar and Al Capone.

Now he thinks that taking the prostitution business out of the hands of
criminal pimps -- and putting it into the hands of responsible citizens --
will increase crime? "I don't particularly think that legalization is
helpful, other than strengthening the hands of organized crime," he said.

What a nincompoop! This man's puritanical ideology is blinding him to the
scientific facts. How these backwards-thinking morons find their way out of
their houses each day is a mystery to me.

Russell Barth

Ottawa

(Toews fears aren't entirely misplaced -- we gather other jurisdictions
with legal brothels have encountered the problem of shady characters in the
business)