PROHIBITION OF MARIJUANA IS A MISERABLE FAILURE

Re "Cops weed out $31M in grass" (Oct. 7): Recent pot-crop busts in
Eastern Ontario are more evidence that the prohibition of marijuana is
a miserable failure. Prohibition only serves the interests of police
and organized crime. Police have spent decades and countless billions
of dollars enforcing these laws. Yet today, more Canadians use
marijuana than at any time in our history and grow ops proliferate
throughout the country to meet the massive demand. For every dealer or
grow-op police bust, five more pop up.

Canada's problem is not with marijuana but with our marijuana policy
and abdication of regulatory control.

The inflated value of illegal marijuana is what drives the thriving
grow-op business across the country. This is welcome news for the
police who will continue busting grow ops like shooting fish in a
barrel and organized crime who will view any punitive measures as
simply the cost of doing business.

The Canadian people, meanwhile, are threatened by the illegal trade
and those whom it empowers. It is far past time that Canada had a
marijuana policy that works for the citizens of Canada.

Parliament should follow the recommendations of the Fraser Institute
(and the Senate of Canada) and regulate and tax marijuana, use the $2
billion in profits per year toward social programs and immediately
stop the profit incentive to set up illegal grow ops in houses and
fields throughout our country.

Jody Pressman,

Executive Director, NORML Canada

(No doubt crooks will find some other way to occupy themselves)