FILL THE HILL

Re "Tide is high on prevention" (Jan. 29): The number of grow ops and
seizures itself reveals a problem that is out of control. Clandestine
marijuana grow ops are a symptom of prohibition, not of marijuana use
itself. If people want to get rid of the grow ops, Canada better start
looking at the issue of marijuana seriously.

Prohibition has seen a skyrocketing use of marijuana, proliferation of grow
ops, and pot is easier to get in high schools than alcohol or tobacco.
Prohibition is achieving the opposite of what it is purported to do.

Why not regulate the supply of marijuana and take the grow ops out of our
community, the money out of the hands of the black market, and remove the
alleged dangers to our fire, health, and police officials, as well as our
communities. Also let's put pot behind the counter like cigarettes and
alcohol, then maybe we can keep it out of the hands of children and regulate
access to it. The more restrictive the drug laws, the more lucrative the
profit and incentive to establish grow-ops.

Just like moonshining in the early 20th century, such illicit operations
hidden from the light of day and the scrutiny of health and safety
regulations obviously will pose threats not only to the people procuring the
marijuana but to the people consuming it. Thirty years after the LeDain
commission report, can we start taking the issue of marijuana seriously? Or
will we continue to giggle the issue away while the lucrative marijuana
industry continues to thrive at the expense of law and order and the rule of
law?

Marijuana prohibition is cutting at the very foundation of our society --
law and order are going to the dogs so that some people can continue to
profit from pot prohibition. Canadians are increasingly catching on to what
is going on and the flaws inherent in our current drug policies.

Many Canadians realize that we need substantive reform of our marijuana laws
which will address the important issues of supply and demand at the core of
the debate. Marijuana activists from across Canada and concerned citizens
will unite on June 5 -- in an unprecedented event, endorsed by the B.C.
Civil Liberties Association, Canadians for Safe Access, and the Vancouver
Island Compassion Society -- to demand that the government take serious
action to reform Canada's failed marijuana laws, and once and for all, put
an end to the entrenched criminal monopoly on Canada's marijuana supply.

Visit our project website at www.fillthehill.ca to find out more.

Jody Pressman

Event Co-ordinator,

Fill the Hill 2004: Freedom March on Parliament Hill

(We aren't sure a rally on the Hill can be described as "unprecedented," but
good luck getting the government's attention, anyway)