U.S. BLOWING SMOKE

Victoria -- Re U.S. Warns Against Liberalizing Laws On Pot (Oct. 2): Let us
apply Occam's razor (paraphrased as "when you have two competing theories
that make exactly the same predictions, the one that is simpler is the
better") to U.S. drug czar John Walters's hypothesis that a majority of
Canadians support cannabis law reform because we have fallen "for the same
myths about marijuana that far too many Americans have fallen for."

Polls consistently find that those who support cannabis law reform tend to
be of higher education and income. To accept Mr. Walters's theory, we must
also accept that the most educated citizens of Canada, Britain, Belgium,
the Netherlands, Australia, Portugal, Germany, Spain and a dozen U.S.
states that have decriminalized cannabis have fallen for the same myths.

An alternative theory posits that those who support cannabis law reform
rightly concur with every major study of cannabis policy before or since
the Le Dain commission, including Richard Nixon's Shafer commission, that
cannabis prohibition does more harm than good. Naturally, I am inclined to
favour this theory over Mr. Walters's insult to our intelligence.