HAVEN'T LEARNED YET

Thanks for the outstanding column by Arthur Black, "You're, um, busted,
man" (The Sunday Herald, Dec. 28).

Mr. Black hits the nail right on: Cannabis poses far less danger to the
public safety and neighbourhood tranquillity than legal drugs like alcohol
and tobacco. Just try taking away a tobacco addict's coffin nails and
you'll see the fur fly.

I would add that 100 per cent of cannabis-related violence is
cannabis-prohibition violence. In the 1920s and early '30s, and with the
best of intentions, the U.S. embarked on the Noble Experiment of Alcohol
Prohibition. It didn't stop anyone from drinking; it only transferred
control of the drug from the government to criminal syndicates.

And so it is today with cannabis prohibition: illegal stills and bathtub
gin (grow ops and meth labs), blind pigs (drug houses), turf wars and
drive-by shootings, police corruption and rampant disregard for the law
(some things never change).

Alcohol prohibition was finally repealed not because people decided alcohol
wasn't so dangerous after all; they just came to realize prohibition is worse.

Have we learned the lessons of history? Nope, not yet.

Greg Francisco, Paw Paw, MI,

Educators for Sensible Drug Policies