PROHIBITION IS NOT THE ANSWER

Dear Editor:

Re: Police join forces to bust grow ops (Airdrie Echo, Feb. 9)

The only way to make grow ops less dangerous and thwart the efforts of
organized crime is to legalize and regulate the business. Pot-growing is
lucrative specifically because it is illegal. Prohibition fuels the market
by artificially inflating the price of a weed, which will grow anywhere one
drops the seeds. By endorsing the increase of penalties, police are
endorsing more prohibition. Therefore, they are endorsing a system which
subsidizes organized crime, endangers Canadians, makes drugs easier for
kids to get than alcohol or tobacco, wastes police resources and is costing
Canadians billions.

Just which side of the law are they really on, anyway?

- -- Russell Barth, Ottawa, Ont.