POT COLUMN PROVOKES REACTIONS

For what it's worth...here's my 'onslaught' from North
Vancouver.

First, to answer your closing question - crime rates in Canada would
clearly plummet as legalizing would effectively remove the criminal
laws against possession, distribution and production of marijuana for
adult consumption.

Lets not be foolish and try to pretend that prohibition of marijuana
actually limits anyone from presently procuring cannabis (certainly
not on the streets of Canada at least). Knowing this, it's clear then
to anyone that we artificially create criminality (or crime) around
cannabis when we apply these draconian and moralistic laws of
prohibition.

However, with prohibition as the policy of the day, real, additional,
nasty crimes do indeed transpire. Driven by an incredibly lucrative
black-market for cannabis we invite in gangs, guns and warfare, along
with dangerous grows, booby traps, unregulated products and sadly a
continued marketplace for other seriously harmful drugs to be introduced.

I guess you also failed to mention the additional benefits of
legalization such as a regulated products and tax collections.
Fortunately you made an attempt to start looking at and comparing
cannabis to alcohol (remember Al Capone?).

The effects however between the two substances are remarkable and not
at all similar - no recorded deaths from cannabis (ever), no violence,
no drug crime, and no domestic violence.

Without prohibition we can sanely look at cannabis as the planet's
best source of food, fiber, fuel and medicine.

Jules Burt

North Vancouver