HIGH TIME

IN handing a grow operator a conditional sentence last month, North
Vancouver provincial judge Doug Moss expressed frustration the court
could not do more to curb his activities.

We share Moss's frustration, but we believe it is misdirected. Moss is
right the system has little power to kill grow ops. But stiffer
sentences would do nothing to help. Our 80-year war on drugs has shown
this in abundance.

Despite the endless resources we have poured into enforcement, the
drug trade has thrived. Our efforts have driven up prices to the point
it is among the most lucrative industries on the planet.

Sky-high profits and a dependent consumer base have drawn criminal
organizations like flies, driving them to invest enormous effort into
the trade's expansion. No law will deter them.

In this sense, drug laws are arguably the biggest driver of crime in
the modern world. The trade can be tied to everything from gang
violence to property crime to the dangerous and destructive grow ops
Moss - like the rest of us - would like to see eradicated.

It is only when we realize we're heading the wrong way, when we
acknowledge our courts are indeed ineffectual under the current
system, that we will begin to make progress.

Drugs - marijuana included - should be legalized, regulated, and
restricted internationally, much the way cigarettes are. Drugs cannot
be vanquished, but the criminals who pedal them can. The dangers of
legalized drugs are manifold, but they are nothing compared to the
dangers of the status quo.