IF POT USE GOES UP, ALCOHOL USE DROPS

Re: Marijuana laws need updating, Editorial, Dec. 15.

While I appreciate your support for cannabis law reform, decriminalization
would not be an improvement.

South Australia introduced an "expiation" regime in 1987, under which those
caught in possession of small amounts are ticketed and fined. Over the next
six years, tickets almost tripled from 6,000 to 17,000 per year. Half the
tickets went unpaid, so more users were criminalized after
decriminalization than before. Further, Australians discovered that the
police are more apt to ticket those least able to pay - the young, the poor
and the aboriginal - thus magnifying existing racial- and class-based
enforcement disparities.

You wrote, "No one is arguing that marijuana use is a positive - unless
referring to its ability to ease pain in the gravely ill." Cannabis,
alcohol and other drugs are economic substitutes with cross-price
elasticities. When cannabis use goes up, alcohol and other drug use goes
down, resulting in a net decrease in drug-related harm.

Economists estimate that cannabis decriminalization would reduce youth
traffic fatalities by 5.5 per cent, youth drinking rates by 8 per cent and
binge drinking rates by 5 per cent. Alcohol leads to more accidents,
unintended pregnancies, rape, crime and violence than any other commonly
used drug.

Matthew M. Elrod,

Victoria, B.C.