LETTER OF THE DAY

TAX AND REGULATE THE SALE OF MARIJUANA

RE "BATTERING the crooks" (Saturday Sun, Feb. 7): Your article reminds
Canadians that marijuana grow-ops are out of control. With so many across
the country, why continue to send our police in guns blazing, as it were?
Isn't it plainly obvious this is a problem with our laws and politicians and
not with marijuana?

Prohibition has failed to stem the tide of smoking or growing marijuana. (In
fact it did quite the opposite!)

The article quotes Det. Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum of the OPP as saying it's a
matter of "manpower and priorities." The problem is our priorities are
wrong, and as a result our manpower is wasted.

Why are we wasting police resources on a problem that continues to grow? Why
do we keep clogging the courts with offences the courts continue to treat as
benign and not posing serious threats to society?

Marijuana is a $12-billion industry in Ontario alone. We cannot combat an
industry of that size through prohibition. Canadians should be outraged that
$12 billion goes annually to organized crime in Ontario and we continue to
have a prohibition that sustains this industry.

We cannot keep fighting this problem with wasted police and court resources.
It's time to get our priorities straight, to use police and court resources
on serious crimes, and to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana in Canada.

On Saturday, June 5, Canadians from across the country will stage a massive
political demonstration on Parliament Hill to provoke political change.
Endorsed by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and featuring respected
speakers such as Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin and Libby Davies, concerned
Canadians will gather to "fill the Hill" for real reform to our failed
prohibition laws. Visit our Web site at www.fillthehill.ca.

Jody Pressman

Ottawa

(No smoking allowed, of course, in Ottawa's public places)