U.S. HAS NO RIGHT TO HINDER OUR LAWS

Re: Ottawa's pot plan overhaul delayed two more weeks

Reports about the interference of the Bush administration concerning
Canada's social policy are alarming. When the government of Canada
contemplates changing its laws regarding marijuana, the Bush government
steps in and says, "Oh, no you don't." As a government that breaks
international law on a regular basis, the war against Iraq being only one
example, the hypocrisy of its statements on attempts to reform Canada's
marijuana laws is obvious.

Is the administration in Washington so ignorant that it doesn't know
marijuana has been decriminalized in 13 states in the U.S. already? Is it
so obsessed with its drug war that it hasn't heard the statistics from
those states? The states that have decriminalized marijuana have all
recorded a decline in consumption. Further, the states that have the
harshest and most draconian anti-marijuana laws, such as Bush's own state
of Texas, consistently record an increase in consumption.

Like many Canadians, I would like to remind the U.S. to mind its own
business and clean up its own act before it starts lecturing the rest of
the world. Threats about the border and trade amount to nothing more than
cheap blackmail.

The U.S. has no right to dictate social policy in Canada, much as it might
like to.

Paul A. Walmark

Toronto