CRIMINALS AND COPS AGREE ON POT PROHIBITION

Yet more proof that the powers-that-be, from the mayor of Abbotsford to the
solicitor general in Victoria to the RCMP commissioner in Ottawa, remain
stuck in a fantasy world where "getting tough" on marijuana growers will
eventually eradicate B.C.'s number-one industry.

Abbotsford has jumped on the failed war-on-drugs bandwagon whole-hog,
forwarding a resolution to the annual Union of B.C.

Municipalities convention that will do absolutely nothing to put a dent in
the number of pot-growing operations in the city.

Coupled with this useless resolution - one that calls for stiffer sentences
for those growing and selling weed - comes the argument from Abbotsford
Mayor Mary Reeves that boggles the mind for the fact it makes no sense
whatsoever.

Reeves says she is not in favour of decriminaliztion or legalization of
marijuana or any other drug.

"At the end of the day, this is all about organized crime," Reeves says.
"You can decriminalize until the cows come home, but it's an epidemic."

Actually, if you decriminalize - or better yet, legalize - marijuana, you
immediately cut out organized crime from that crop, a crop from which
criminals have been profiting since pot was first banned in the 1923 Opium
and Drug Act.

On the other hand, a certain way to ensure organized crime remains in
business is to follow the futility espoused by Reeves, Solicitor General
Rich Coleman and RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, which is to
emulate the long-failed U.S. 'war on drugs" approach and continue to
foolishly apply it to the benign plant.

It's simple supply and demand. Regardless of the law, demand will remain
strong. Cut into the supply via millions wasted on more cops busting more
grow-ops and more court dates and more "criminals" going behind bars, and
the gig gets more and more lucrative.

Every so often police brass will hold press conferences - as they did last
week in Vancouver with the not-so-new news that, surprise, Hells Angels and
other organized crime groups are involved in grow-ops - claiming there is a
crisis and demanding tougher legislation and longer jail sentences for
those caught growing pot.

Apparently, it escapes these prohibitionist dinosaurs that the very laws in
place are the very reason the pockets of the Hells Angels and others are
bulging.

Granted, Reeves, Coleman and others of that generation are plagued by the
misinformation doled out in their day; alleged "facts" that today are seen
by rational folk as the folly that are - more of the Reefer Madness nonsense.

What Reeves, Coleman and other deluded prohibitionists need to do is read a
copy of the 1972 Le Dain Commission Report, the 2002 Senate Special
Committee on Illegal Drugs Report and various other studies that have
consistently called for the legal regulation of the so-called evil weed.

Of course, the absurdity of this entire farce is that is creates strange
bedfellows indeed; for it can be argued that prohibition is the preferred
choice of criminals and cops alike.

Why society cannot see this remains a mystery.

* Chris Foulds is a reporter at The Abbotsford News.