PUT AGE CONTROLS ON MARIJUANA

Dear Sir:

Provencher MP Vic Toews needs to consider that there is a big difference
between condoning marijuana use and protecting children from drugs.

Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana use and
frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal records. What's
really needed is a regulated market with age controls. Separating the hard
and soft drug markets is critical. As long as marijuana distribution
remains in the hands of organized crime, consumers will continue to come
into contact with addictive drugs like cocaine.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol-the plant has
never been shown to cause an overdose death-it makes no sense to waste tax
dollars on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the
use of hard drugs.

Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to
think the children are more important than the message. Tough-on-drugs
politicians who've built careers on confusing drug prohibition's collateral
damage with a relatively harmless plant would no doubt disagree.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A. Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance Washington, DC