LOOKING AFTER THEIR OWN

WHEN YOU hear the Canadian Police Association calling the Senate committee
report on marijuana legalization "a back-to-school gift for drug pushers,"
beware - they are primarily looking after their own.

According to the federal auditor general's report last year, the federal
government alone spent $500 million on prohibition. Also, according to
Statistics Canada there are 56,020 police officers in Canada. Let's assume
that $100 million goes to lawyers and courts and the rest goes to the
police. That leaves about $8,000 a year for each officer. Assuming an
average wage of $50,000, this means 16% of each police officer's paycheque
derives from drug prohibition - and that is mostly marijuana.

Without prohibition we could do without 20% of those police officers and we
could hire more doctors, nurses and teachers.

Chuck Beyer, Victoria, B.C.

(Police - except the RCMP - aren't paid by the feds. And we'd keep them on
the job, working on serious crime)