POT PENALTIES DRIVING THE VIOLENCE

What Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan and the police don't
understand is that it is the extreme marijuana growing penalties in
this country that are driving the growers to use weapons against the
police.

If there were no penalties for growing, or perhaps a small fine or
fee, then many average marijuana users would probably consider growing
their own.

This would immediately put an end to hostile confrontations between
the police and growers that often result in a shootout.

The harsh penalties for a drug that is less dangerous than alcohol has
driven marijuana distribution into the hands of dangerous organized
crime groups.

The recreational use of marijuana by hundreds of thousands of people
all over Canada is not something that any police officer should be
dying over.

Matt Bowen, Roches Pt., Ont.