PROHIBITION INFLATES VALUE OF DRUGS

Editor, The Star:

Any prohibited item's value is artificially raised by the act of
prohibition. Once you allow people to produce their own, in their
homes, legally, the value of the marijuana in those illegal growhouses
will fall to 10 per cent of what it had been during
prohibition.

You would then have a commodity that would follow standard supply and
demand laws. A criminal thinks... 'is it worth risking five years
federal time for a 90 day shot at $750,000?' As it stands now, that
can be done quite readily. Now, is it worth that same five years
federal time for $75,000? That's a very different proposition.

The reason the gangs are involved is the money to be made, period. If
you allow anyone who wants to produce their own, in their home
(legalization) the huge growhouses will slowly disappear because the
money will. The gangs will go back to selling hard drugs because
that's where the money will be.

CHRIS BARRETT,
Nashville