THE WAR ON POT HELPS A VIOLENT, DIRTY BUSINESS

In "Dealing dope in B.C. is far from a victimless crime," you opined
that our "naive judges" are too lenient on "drug kingpins," that U.S.
judges understand the value of long prison sentences, and that
cannabis consumers are "contributing to a dark, dirty and increasingly
violent business."

Despite incarcerating more drug offenders than Western Europe
imprisons for all crimes combined, the U.S. remains its own largest
cannabis supplier.

There is no evidence that U.S. sentencing practices have made their
black marketeers less dark, dirty, violent or organized than ours. On
the contrary, their aggressive war on cannabis contributed to their
methamphetamine epidemic.

No one knows what share of the lucrative cannabis market Parliament
has abdicated to violent criminals, because the market is entirely
unregulated.

But a survey of Canadian prisoners serving time for high-level
cultivation and trafficking found that about 70 per cent were of the
unorganized variety.

In other words, just as some alcohol consumers contributed to Al
Capone, if you purchase cannabis on the black market (rather than grow
your own) and you do not know its origins, then you might be
contributing to a dark, dirty and increasingly violent business.

If you still support cannabis prohibition, then you most certainly
are.

Matthew Elrod,

Victoria