DRUGS ARE A PROBLEM

Dear editor,

I am very sorry to hear about the officers murdered during a grow-op raid. I
have been a cannabis activist for 30 years.

It has recently become clear to me there is some truth to reports that
organized crime are now taking over what used to be a cottage industry.
Meaning that gangs involved in violent crimes and foreign political
terrorism are reaping large profits from those who buy pot.

So many people I have seen in my travels through 17 countries have to
struggle just for food, and I shudder when I think how much money North
Americans spend on drugs, including narcotics, sleeping pills, Prozac,
tranquilizers, uppers, barbiturates, and a myriad of other stupefying and
toxic substances such as alcohol, coffee, and tobacco.

I wonder if the amount of money spent on all these inebriants might actually
rival the amount spent on the petroleum imports, which power our industrial
nations. In British Columbia pot profits are catching up to the lumber
industry, B.C.'s number-one source of income. On TV, I repeatedly see
aid-commercials telling us that for $1 a day we can adopt starving children
in underprivileged counties, giving them food, medicine, clothing, and an
education. Some addicts spend over $50 a day on intoxication. They could
afford to raise 50 disadvantaged children. Perhaps the amount we spend on
getting high could feed and educate the whole world. I would not be
surprised if this were so. Perhaps people would feel better helping others
than they do from drugs.

After overpopulation, drugs are the number-one problem society faces today.

North Americans consume so many drugs that I have now begun to appreciate
the intention of prohibition. When I stop to really think about it, I worry
what such vast and widespread drug consumption might be doing to our gene
pool, and I learn to truly respect the intentions of laws, religious groups,
and health-conscious people who refuse to engage in the tidal wave of drug
use sweeping this society.

Ultimately I don't advocate telling others what they can and cannot do with
their own body and mind, out of respect for personal freedom and individual
sovereignty. However, to those who have not yet joined the majority of the
stoned, I say keep it up, stick to your principles.

This from a marijuana activist.

James Dure,

Duncan