OUST CRIMINALS

Illegality - Following the terrible tragedy in Alberta on Thursday,
Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan stated that the Liberal marijuana
decriminalization proposal must be reviewed and changed to hand out
harsher penalties to growers.

However, stricter prohibition and heavier penalties only generate
massive illegal profit for criminals, who are willing to take great
risks to make that bundle of tax-free cash. Alcohol was a massive
moneymaker for the gangsters during liquor prohibition, just as
marijuana cultivation is extremely profitable under the tough drug
laws we have now. If marijuana were as common as peanuts or daisies,
there would be no incentive for organized crime to grow and distribute
it.

Legalizing and regulating marijuana will eliminate the problems
associated with organized crime. There would be no reason to protect
grow ops with guns and violence if they were controlled properly with
no risk of arrest, jail time, break-ins, seizure of property or other
consequences of growing an illegal substance.

It's time to get rid of organized drug crime by cutting off its
largest means of funding: illegal, mass-scale marijuana
cultivation.

Remember, the end of liquor prohibition ended the illegal liquor
trade, which shut down the gangs and criminal activity of the 1920s.

Make marijuana legal and watch the problems disappear.

Jodie Giesz-Ramsay,

Vancouver