REGULATION BETTER THAN DECRIMINALIZATION

Regarding the article "MP welcomes senate report on changes to cannabis law"
(Esquimalt News Web site, posted Sept. 11).

Keith Martin does seem to have a better handle on cannabis and cannabis
prohibition than most of his counterparts in the Canadian Alliance Party.
Nevertheless, decriminalization remains a poor substitute for the regulation
of cannabis because it would not address the multitude of problems caused by
cannabis prohibition itself.

Keith Martin's argument that legalizing marijuana would actually increase
the level of trafficking of pot from Canada to the U.S. doesn't take into
account the fact that heightened border security would serve as a deterent
circumventing most crossborder transactions.

Why would Canadians, duly licensed with a regulated market at their diposal,
risk it all conspiring to transport cannabis into a known restricted
territory?

Wayne Phillips Hamilton, Ontario