GOVERNMENT WOULD PROFIT BY LEGALIZING POT

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the legalization of
marijuana. It is very surprising how our government wants to jump into the
drug dealing business. Where have all the morals gone?

First, marijuana homegrowers get nailed by the police for trying to run a
profitable illegal business, now the government decides to look at making
it legal and now wants a piece of the action, too.

Surely government revenue is part of the picture. Just look at the
government tax situation with alcohol. We called the LCBO hotline to
examine the breakdown of tax revenue. Following is an example from LCBO's
1-800-668-5226 hotline on a 750 millilitre bottle of Canadian Club whisky,
which should knock your socks off. The cost of distilling was $7.39. LCBO
mark up of 135 per cent adds $10.20, raising the price to $17.59. Bottle
levy is 29 cents/litre multiplied by 0.782, giving you approximately 23
cents to add. We are now up to $17.82. But there is more. We must add the
rounded revenue to the nearest nickel, being $17.85 in this case. And don't
forget your provincial sales tax at 12 per cent ($2.14), bringing it up to
$19.99 and then the GST at seven per cent ($1.25), hitting the mark of
$21.24. The total government revenue here is 2.87 times (287 per cent) the
total cost to manufacture, market, sell and profit from this product.

It is obvious why the government wants to jump on to the gambling and now,
marijuana, bandwagon.

Back in the old days of prohibition, the government realized that increased
profit could be made by taking over the illegal bootlegging industries,
rather than being more efficient in reducing waste and bad spending.

We guess it's now time for this notorious government of ours to take over
another illegal industry -- the drug trafficking business. All the morals
have been traded in for tax revenue.

Louis Landry and Nicholas Ermeta, Cambridge