LEGALIZE IT

RE YOUR Feb. 24 editorial: Decriminalizing marijuana, rather than
legalizing it, makes no sense. If the goal is to eliminate wasted police
hours and to avoid criminal records for an activity that few Canadians
believe criminal, then surely a further goal should be to eliminate the
direct link to international criminals.

What is frightening is not the smoking, it's having criminals hanging
around our schoolyards and the flaunting of law. Let the LCBO take over the
sale and distribution of marijuana. Let the taxpayer benefit from taxes on
the sale and from reduced medical costs when the product smoked is not
adulterated with other drugs or substances. It would be a win/win. Let's
break the chain between pot smokers and organized crime.

Nola Crewe

(But if the legal age is 19, same as tobacco cigarettes, won't criminals
still be hanging around the schoolyard?)