WE COULD REAP PROFITS FROM ILLEGAL DRUGS

Re: Minister outraged by grow house bust (thestar.com, Feb. 18.)

If Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter was really interested in
children's health, fire safety, or the theft of electricity, he might
suggest that marijuana be legalized just like alcohol or tobacco.

Instead, we hear the same tired solution: More prohibition, more money
for enforcement, and more police pressure to eliminate grow operations.

Regardless of whether you use marijuana or not, legalizing its
production, distribution and consumption would have a positive effect.

If nothing else, we'd stop the profits from a multi-billion dollar
industry ending up in criminal hands. Doing so would deal a larger
blow to organized crime than any other effort to date.

Cedric Silvester,

Peterborough, Ont.