REGULATED SALES WOULD SOLVE YOUTH POT PROBLEM

I have lived in a few cities over the last 20 years and it seems where ever
I go, there are grow-ops being "busted." Seemingly, with no end in sight.

I, for one, see a problem associated with all these grow-ops producing all
that cannabis. Namely, high quality marijuana is all too easily available
to children. This is the real drug problem. Easy access of pot for
teenagers has infected every community in which I have lived.

There is a solution, I think. It occurred to me the other day when one of
my teenage sons was asking me to "boot" for him. At first, I did not even
know what he meant. Was he having trouble with his computer, I thought? No,
he was having trouble with the legal regulations surrounding liquor.

Thankful, naturally I said "no way" and proceeded to tell him it was
something I would never do for him and that I thought very poorly of
drinking as a recreational activity. I told him it belongs in the kitchen
and at the dining room table and has very little use outside those
circumstances.

This scenario underscored for me the fact that cannabis prohibition has had
exactly the opposite effect on controlling its use. If, as the
prohibitionists claim, the point is to eliminate its use, then I would say
that after nearly 70 years of prohibition, the opposite has been achieved.
Can we do something as a community to get pot out of the hands of children?

Yes. I propose a trial (adults only) outlet for cannabis and cannabis
products. A place where adults can go and legally purchase and consume the
herb. How will this help keep pot out of the hands of children?

First of all, most of the cost of today's pot is reflected in its legal
status. Legally sold pot would undercut the illegal "dealers." Illegal pot
sales would all but dry up. The few remaining unscrupulous ones who would
continue to sell to children could and should be targeted.

Instead of huge amounts of police resources being wasted on tracking down
grow-ops (which would have to be legal components to legal retail sales to
adults), they could spend time finding those remaining dealers who sell to
underage smokers.

Citizens of Parksville and Qualicum Beach could look forward to the added
benefit of another home grown industry that provides skilled and
semi-skilled employment opportunities, tax revenue for all our favourite
governments, safe and properly regulated grow-ops, and increased
cooperation between the police and those who would otherwise have to
mistrust them.

Oceanside is a beautiful community full of decent, friendly people, yet
there is an undercurrent of tension that is the drug law problem. This
tension is evidenced in the manner in which teenagers "get baked" on a
daily basis. It is time for the prohibitionists to admit their solution has
only exacerbated whatever drug problems would already exist in our society
and consider a far less harmful approach.