REGULATION A BETTER POT OPTION

Although the Fraser Institute comes up with some biased data at times
to back up its mandate, this week's study outlining why Canadian
governments should make marijuana legal and reap the billions of
dollars realized in taxes simply makes economic sense.

Certainly you could listen to the wild claims by some who still
believe marijuana to be evil incarnate, but you could also park your
car and buy a horse and buggy.

Several recent reports, including Senate and Parliamentary reports in
recent years, note that more than a million Canadian adults regularly
indulge in a relaxing toke.

Again and again, medical and other experts in Canada and in the United
States, where pot laws vary wildly, point out that more people consume
alcohol and tobacco and both of those present greater health threats.

The study's author Stephen Easton says that, as with alcohol
prohibition, it will be close to impossible to suppress cannabis
use-the market is there and it's steady.

Some argue that legalizing weed would not deter organized crime and
would invoke the wrath of the Americans, yet Dutch experience shows
that neither Holland nor Europe have collapsed under a giant cloud of
smoke.

Conservatives, who normally applaud greater individual freedoms and
less government intervention, paradoxically promote a troubling hard
line that increasingly erodes individual rights, and encourages
citizens to tattle on each other. Now local governments are imposing
bylaws in an area where they don't have jurisdiction, and which will
cost the taxpayer, yet again.

It seems the harder we try to crush marijuana culture, the stronger it
springs back and the deeper its roots go into a black market.

Easton said alcohol prohibition served only to expand organized crime
in North America. While the end of prohibition generated some
problems, they were nothing compared to those afflicted on society
during the days of Al Capone, he said. Hasn't history repeated itself?

With so many voices coming from diverse sectors of our society, our
leaders have to listen and start to plan for a Canada where cannabis
is legal, safe and regulated. While Easton's estimates of B.C.'s pot
industry at $7 billion seems a little rich, there's no doubt a
regulated industry would be a better option to what we have today.