Legalize It And Tax It

Re: Keep fighting, March 8.

Letter-writer Edward Sugden passes judgment on Dan Gardner's
commentary on legalization of marijuana with weak factual
justification. His argument against adding marijuana to Canada's list
of legal drugs is: "well, who needs two monsters?"

Is it not widely know that alcohol and tobacco products are also
mood-altering and addictive substances that can also adversely affect
people's health? How can these refined drugs be justified as socially
acceptable when marijuana is an unrefined organic product?

Contrary to his belief that legalization would do nothing except
provide an "unbridled use of revenue-generating, government-regulated
poison that people will think is OK," if the appropriate steps were
taken, there would be profound benefits for both Canada and the United
States.

The most direct benefits would be the massive blow to organized crime
by removing its primary source of income and the addition of new
marijuana tax revenues for use on behalf of the people of Canada.
Since the marijuana industry is estimated to earn $9 billion annually,
imagine the damage we could inflict on the world of organized crime,
while shoring up new tax revenues for our ailing health-care system.

And if it is regulated provincially, a system similar to Ontario's
successful alcohol monopoly, the LCBO, could be set up to help curb
"unbridled use."

Rather than simply jumping on board conservative America's endless war
on drugs, let's stand firm in our liberal decisions and perhaps remind
the U.S. why it repealed its Prohibition law in 1933. It was, after
all, the 13 years of alcohol prohibition in the U.S. that gave
organized criminal elements the finances necessary to gain a foothold
in North American society, a foothold that remains to this day.

Elliott Cozens,

Ottawa