RELAXED POT LAWS SEEN AS SAFETY NET

OTTAWA -- Four RCMP officers cut down while investigating a massive
marijuana grow operation might not have died if Canada had legalized
pot, a former Alberta Liberal leader said yesterday. Nick Taylor, a
former senator and one-time leader of the Liberals in the province
where the tragedy occurred, said the incident proves once again that
prohibition, whether for alcohol, tobacco or marijuana, doesn't work.

"The way we've done it now is marijuana has become the exclusive
prerogative of the criminal element because there's such fantastic
profit in it," he said.

"I'm not saying that the four men would be alive if we had legalized
marijuana, but I suspect they might be."

He said Canada should have learned from the failed prohibition era,
when the U.S. tried to ban alcohol, that such measures only fuel
organized crime.

Taylor, in Ottawa for the national Liberal convention, said he's
"hoping one of the good things that will come out of" the tragedy is
it will prompt Liberal delegates to support a resolution to legalize
pot.

The resolution, which would see pot legalized and taxed, is to be
debated tomorrow.

But even if the resolution is ultimately approved by Liberal
delegates, resolutions are not binding on the government.

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan didn't wait for the debate to
rule out legalization.

"We're not in the business of legalizing marijuana," she told
reporters.