PREPARE FOR LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

The number of drug busts in Canada and the United States shows current laws
are working. Dealers are hurting.

Legalization of marijuana is not a plan to put dealers out of business. It
is a plan to save their businesses by partnershiping with government.

Re: Kirk Muse's letter (News, Sept. 27). I know of no bootleggers who were
put out of business by repeal of prohibition. Repeal certainly didn't hurt
the Bronfman family.

Taxes are only a small part of the price of cigarettes. Most of what
customers pay goes to tobacco companies. Taxes vary from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction on a wide range of legal products. Only tobacco companies have
resorted to smuggling to decrease taxes and increase sales volume.

Legalization of marijuana will lead to the legalization of other harmful
drugs. Devin Olmstead (News, Sept. 18) wants to turn the clock back 100
years to a time when any drug could be obtained without a prescription.
There was no drug testing 100 years ago. Arsenic, alcohol, heroin, and lead
were only a few of the ingredients found in cough medicines and other
patent drugs. People were fleeced by unscrupulous companies selling
ineffective medicines with harmful side-effects.

Alcohol prohibition was brought in democratically by referendum. Marijuana
legalization is being brought in autocratically by Supreme Court
appointees. Why? Because there is no popular support for legalization.
Supreme Court and Senate appointees have a right to their opinion but their
opinion should not have more weight than mine or yours.

Chretien's appointees have told him that parliament cannot stop pot smokers
from self-medicating themselves with marijuana. The Supreme Court will soon
be deciding whether pot smokers have a constitutional right to get this
marijuana for free. Expect a yes ruling and a GST hike to 10 per cent to
pay for it.

Del Egan, Medicine Hat